Forgery of In-principle Approval Letters for Employment Purposes

13 Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for Manpower for each year in the past five years, how many employers have been (i) investigated, (ii) convicted and (iii) issued stern warnings for forging in-principle approval letters for employment purposes.

Dr Tan See Leng: From 2018 to 2022, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) received a total of 70 reports on forgery of in-principle approval (IPA) letters.

The perpetrators of these forged IPA letters are typically overseas agents who are beyond our enforcement reach. The employers in Singapore and local employment agencies were able to show that they had sent the original IPA letter overseas. However, the overseas agent would amend key employment terms, for example, salary, before handing the forged IPA letter over to the migrant worker. Over this period, one employer was convicted for forging the IPA letter.