Debar Blacklisted Construction Companies from Projects

9 Mr Desmond Choo asked the Minister for Manpower in view of the recent construction mishap at the TPE-PIE viaduct (a) whether the Ministry will review the current blacklisting framework; (b) how can the Ministry work with BCA to debar blacklisted companies from working on projects rather than just bar them from hiring new workers or renew existing ones; and (c) whether companies need to prove that they have taken remedial steps, including improving worker safety training, before having the blacklist status removed.

The Minister of State for Manpower (Mr Sam Tan Chin Siong) (for the Minister for Manpower): Mdm Speaker, MOM has the Demerit Point System and Business Under Surveillance (BUS) programme to deter construction companies from unsafe work practices and also to compel poor performers to improve. These two frameworks are reviewed regularly to maintain their effectiveness.

We issue demerit points to companies that are fined, issued with a Stop Work Order or prosecuted in Courts for safety offences. The Demerit Point System was amended in 2015 following consultation with the industry and tripartite partners.

There were two significant changes under this 2015 amendment. First, the demerit points will last for 18 months, up from 12 months previously. Second, companies that accumulate 25 demerit points are "blacklisted" by being barred from hiring foreign workers. In the past, they could continue to hire foreign workers but at a higher levy. Since the review in 2015, MOM has issued about 2,400 demerit points to 223 companies. Twenty-five of these companies were debarred from hiring foreign workers.

Companies with poor safety management will be put under the BUS programme. Once under the BUS programme, companies will have their bizSAFE certification revoked and be closely supervised by MOM to rectify all identified safety lapses. BUS was enhanced in 2016 to have broader entry criteria. Previously, a company needed to have systemic safety infringements to be put under BUS, even if they had a fatal accident. Since May 2016, any company with a Stop Work Order or any fatality is placed under the BUS programme immediately.

To exit from BUS, companies need to demonstrate to MOM that they have taken sufficient remedial steps to improve their Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) performance. This includes conducting refresher training for all workers on any unsafe practices found. On average, this process takes at least one year for companies to get out of the BUS programme. So, it is a pretty stringent programme. Since the enhancement, we have placed 25 companies on the BUS programme.

We are coordinating with other Government agencies, including BCA, to review procurement practices for construction projects. Agencies handling key public projects, such as JTC and LTA, already take into consideration bidders' safety record, such as demerit points, bizSAFE or BUS status, in their procurement assessment. We also make available the list of companies under the BUS programme and the demerit points on our website for reference by those who are interested.

With the enhanced enforcement regime, it has helped to reduce construction workplace fatalities from 27 in 2015 to 24 in 2016, and to four fatalities so far this year. While we take companies with poor safety records to task, they should also be given an opportunity to improve their safety record and performance. In fact, many companies which went through the BUS programme have exited and attained good safety standards. Some have even won safety and health awards locally and internationally.

MOM will continue to monitor developments and the situation, and refine our regulatory framework where needed to strengthen WSH performance in Singapore.

Mr Desmond Choo (Tampines): I thank the Minister of State for his comprehensive reply. I have two supplementary questions.

Firstly, can the Minister of State clarify why was OKP not under BUS at the material time? Are we satisfied that there is no systemic failure of its safety management system?

Secondly, while a lot of demerit points have been issued to the companies, are we also satisfied that the current regime is tough enough to deter companies from even trying to adopt lower standards in their safety management?

Mr Sam Tan Chin Siong: Mdm Speaker, I thank the Member for the two supplementary questions.

First, about why OKP was allowed to participate in Government projects despite it being involved in some accident. As explained by the Senior Minister of State for Transport just now, when LTA awarded the PIE viaduct project to OKP in November 2015, the investigation on the earlier September 2015 accident was still ongoing at the time. And following the September 2015 accident, MOM inspected all of OKP's worksites to check if the accident reflected a wider systemic failure of the company's safety management. However, no evidence of systemic safety lapses was found from the inspections. So, OKP was not placed under BUS following that accident. This was the situation in 2015.

As part of the continual efforts to improve WSH performance, we have further strengthened our BUS programme in May 2016 to put companies on BUS immediately after a fatal accident. So, for any company with a workplace fatality now, Government agencies would have known that they are put on BUS and will have their bizSAFE status revoked. So, agencies can take this into account when assessing their upcoming tenders. This timeline explains why OKP was not put under the BUS programme for the earlier 2015 accident but was placed on the BUS programme following the PIE viaduct accident on 14 July this year.

As to the Member's second question on whether the current regime is tough enough to deter companies from taking short cuts and to infringe WSH practices, while we would like to think that the current regime is tough enough to deter companies, as Members can see, the fatality rates in the first seven months of 2017 had fallen remarkably to four fatality cases as compared to 24 for the whole of 2016, and 27 fatality cases in 2015.

But having said that, we are cognisant that, at the construction worksites, things can happen quite quickly and we are not taking this current situation lightly. In fact, we have stepped up our enforcement actions on many worksites to make sure that all these worksites follow the WSH regimes and measures carefully. As a matter of fact, MOM conducts 16,000 inspections a year on all the worksites in Singapore. The bulk of our inspections is concentrated on the higher-risk industries, like marine, oil and gas, as well as construction.

So, while we cannot say for sure that the current regime will be able to 100% get the companies to adhere fully to the WSH regulations, standards and performance, we will closely monitor them. If there is a need to further tighten, we will continue to do so, as the reviewing of our safety regulatory framework is an ongoing effort.

Mr Low Thia Khiang (Aljunied): A supplementary question, Madam. The Minister of State said that OKP had some industrial accident but was not put under BUS because it was determined not to be systemic. So, I would like to ask what MOM considers to be a systemic problem for companies which had industrial accidents. How does it assess whether it is systemic or not? And would he tell this House examples of companies which have been found to have systemic problems and put under BUS?

Mr Sam Tan Chin Siong: Madam, I thank the Member for the supplementary questions, which are very important ones.

When we investigate and inspect a company, we look at many aspects, from the company's WSH systems to the daily inspections and also the toolbox meetings conducted by the supervisors and the foremen, and also to investigate the WSH risk assessment procedures for every job. So, it is a very comprehensive regime and inspection to make sure that the companies, from the management to the workers, follow this set of WSH standards and guidelines.

If a company has encountered a certain worksite accident and the cause of the accident is not because there were no proper WSH regimes or regulations put in place but because of certain human errors or oversight, that is considered as an isolated case and not a systemic failure. We will use this as a basis to evaluate the company's standards of the WSH and then decide whether this company has a systemic widespread WSH failure or the accident was caused by an isolated, incidental or, sometimes, human error.

With regard to the Member's second question on which are the companies that are put under BUS and are later on given the approval to exit, there are altogether 25 companies put under BUS surveillance so far. I do not have the list of the companies at this moment. So, I will give it to the Member offline. They are actually on the MOM website.

Mr Leon Perera (Non-Constituency Member): Thank you, Madam. Just one supplementary question for the Minister of State. To what extent are there safeguards in place against the directors of a company that may be under some form of blacklisting, be it under BUS or some other regime, from incorporating a new company and bidding for Government projects and, thereby, potentially evading their previous negative safety records? If there are no safeguards against them now, will the Ministry look into that and introduce some safeguards against them?

Mr Sam Tan Chin Siong: Madam, I thank the Member for the supplementary questions. The records follow the individuals rather than the company. So, if a company director has infringed certain WSH regulations and all that, there is a record against him. That record will go with him, even if he sets up a new company. So, there is little chance that individuals can evade our system by setting up different companies to undertake Government or private sector projects.