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From September this year, Singapore-based companies that want to hire foreign nationals on an Employment Pass (EP) will have to ensure their educational qualifications are authentic, amid reports that an Indian university was selling fake degrees.
In 2021, Singapore's Ministry of Manpower (MOM) investigated 23 foreigners who graduated from Manav Bharti University in the state of Himachal Pradesh.
Two people were jailed for submitting false qualifications in their work pass applications, while 19 were permanently barred from working in Singapore.
Employers will have to submit third-party verification proof for applicants with diploma-level qualifications and above, web portal Channel News Asia reported, quoting Singapore's Ministry of Manpower (MOM).
"Today, employers are already responsible for ensuring the authenticity of their candidate's qualifications before hiring," Manpower Minister Tan See Leng said in Parliament on Wednesday.
The probe in Singapore began after MOM was alerted that the Indian government was investigating the university for selling fake degrees, the report said.
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The verification requirement will be enforced through the Complementarity Assessment Framework (COMPASS), which was announced last year and comes into effect in September this year for new applications, the report said.
For EP renewal applications, the requirement comes into effect in September 2024, it said.
Mandatory verification will "safeguard against gaming by submitting fraudulent educational qualifications", he said during his ministry's Committee of Supply debate.
In October last year, a man was sentenced to seven weeks' in jail after making false statements in his declaration for an EP.
His EP was approved based on the false statements that were made in February 2019.
Under COMPASS, an EP application will be awarded points based on four attributes and two bonus criteria.
A minimum of 40 points is needed for the application to pass.
Educational qualifications are one of the attributes, and a candidate that exceeds expectations with qualifications from a top-tier institution can earn 20 points, the maximum per category.
A degree-equivalent qualification earns 10 points, and a candidate without a degree-equivalent qualification will not be awarded points.
If points are not needed under qualifications, employers do not need to submit verification.
The other attributes under COMPASS are salary, nationality diversity of the firm and the company's support for local employment.
Applications can also earn points through two bonus criteria the Shortage Occupation List and the Strategic Economic Priorities Bonus.
The Shortage Occupation List identifies jobs requiring "niche and highly specialised skills in short supply" within Singapore's workforce.
These jobs are critical in sustaining investments in key growth or strategic priority areas, Tan said.
The specialised roles span areas such as tech, healthcare and sustainability, he said, adding that the list will go through a "major refresh" every three years to ensure it is responsive to industry developments.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
