SINGAPORE: SkillsFuture Singapore has contacted all affected training providers, companies and individuals to recover the millions in overpayments made due to lapses in the management of its grants, said Minister of State for Education Gan Siow Huang on Monday .
This was caused by inaccurate or erroneous declarations by grant applicants and training providers that were not picked up by the agency’s internal checks, said Ms Gan in a reply to questions from Members of Parliament. Ms Gan said that to reduce reliance on declarations and manual processing, the agency had since November 2020 put in place a new IT system that uses administrative data in government databases to determine and verify eligibility of the grant applicants.
SSG, the agency in charge of lifelong learning, was also found by the AGO to be lax in enforcing the collection of Skills Development Levy funds from 2015 to 2020, resulting in an estimated S$43 million owed to the agency as of April this year. “SSG’s estimates may differ from actual SDL amounts paid by employers due to factors such as fluctuations in total wages paid to foreign workers every month,” said Ms Gan.
SSG will give affected employers time to validate the amount owed, she said, adding that the agency has started engaging affected employers and will contact all by the end of this financial year.