One of my uncle is a legal counsel handling matrimonial disputes and employment issues and sometimes criminal defence work.
One of the thing he told me is that MOM usually wants foreigners on S-Pass to do a statutory declaration to declare that their qualifications are real.
Apparently, MOM processes hundreds of these applications per day and they may write back to the universities overseas if they suspect some forgery of their certificates. However, MOM is unable to charge these foreigners unless they do a statutory declaration in front of a Commissioner of Oath.
So whenever my uncle (who is a Commissioner of Oath) receives such requests from foreigners, he will suspect that MOM is already flagging out these foreigners.
My uncle will follow the process and will give a clear warning to these foreigners that false declaration in a statutory declaration can be jailed and fined.
Sometimes, these foreigners will chicken out and will confess to my uncle that their degrees are fake and ask my uncle for legal advice etc.
These foreigners also will confess to other things such as employers giving false declaration to MOM on their minimum qualifying monthly salaries to get their S-Pass and phantom workers etc.
One common trick was for employers to give foreigners cold hard cash (without payslips) and ask them to return back a few hundred. So in essence, these foreigners do not earn $2200 as what S-Pass qualifies but only earn $1800 per month.
My uncle will usually advise these foreigners to tell the truth and tell them to blow the whistle on employers.
Many legal counsels and advocates such as my uncle are much aware of the dirty tactics that employers use to bypass MOM regulations and laws.
However, as they are duty bound and client-attorney privilege is utmost importance, my uncle also needs to understand that he cannot just go around and blow the whistle or else no client would want to engage his services anymore.
I believe many Singaporeans who work in private sector, especially those small medium enterprises are well aware of how some employers bypass MOM regulations to hire more foreigners at the expense of locals.
However, they are unable to bravely come out and blow the whistle on them or else they can lose their jobs.
MOM should consider a safety net so that anyone who can report such incidents will not fear reprisals and have another job waiting for them.
CJ
TRS Contributor