I refer to the article "Bankrupt Jailed for Filing False Statements" (ST, 11 July).
In this article a bankrupt was jailed for 4 weeks because he had been making false claims to the Official Assignee for FOUR years!
As a bankrupt, he was required to declare all his income and expenditures and hand over any spare income. So he had been claiming that he was paying $1200 a month for medical expenses for his mother.
In fact, his mother died in 2006 and he wasn't discovered till 2010!
Lax monitoring of expenses?
It is puzzling that a bankrupt was able to deceive the Official Assignee (OA) into believing that he was spending $1,200 a month on his mother's medical expenses, even though she had died in 2006.
The fact that the OA did not detect the deception for four years is unacceptable.
Was there lax monitoring of expenditure claims in this case?
I have always thought the relevant authorities would insist on and authenticate proof of such expenses in the form of medical receipts.
Creditors are at a disadvantage when such cases are not managed properly by the OA.
Liew Eng Choon
*Article first appeared on ST Forum Letters (16 July)