The Ministry of Manpower in Singapore has brought charges against two individuals under Section 53 of the Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Act for engaging in fraudulent activities under the employment of WSH training provider, Active Synergy Training and Consultancy Pte Ltd.

Shivasanker S, director of Active Synergy, was charged for consenting to his company’s forgery of the certificates under section 53(a) read with section 48(1) of the WSHA. Mohanarajan s/o Selvarajan, Active Synergy training manager was charged for intentionally aiding the company’s forgery of the certificates under section 53(b) read with section 109 of the Penal Code.

Under Section 53 of the WSH Act, those found guilty of making false entries and false declarations, or are involved in the forgery of certificates, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding SGD 5,000 (USD 3,643) or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or both.

The Ministry was first alerted to possible fraudulent activities by Active Synergy in Jul 2019. The company withdrew their status as a training provider and ceased operation in Nov 2019, about four months after the Ministry was first alerted.

Following investigations, Active Synergy is alleged to have conducted WSH courses that were of significantly shorter duration, some courses were nearly 80% shorter than the curriculum training hours stipulated by the Ministry, and subsequently issued the forged certificates.

The Ministry’s investigation revealed that most of the affected workers had not been deployed by their employers to perform the work that was covered by the certifications. Notwithstanding this, all the affected workers and their employers will be informed that WSH certificates issued by Active Synergy from 1 Jan 2018 to 27 Nov 2019 are not recognised; affected workers should not be deployed to perform work or roles covered by the affected certifications until they have completed the relevant training with a training provider that is recognised by the Commissioner for WSH.

Affected employers whose workers had obtained ‘Higher Skilled’ R1 status under the Multi-Skilling Scheme, and were accorded a lower foreign worker levy, will be informed of the revised (higher) levy rates via their October 2023 levy bill. In addition, as levies should have been charged based on the workers’ actual skills status and employers should have paid the same higher levy like other employers with lower skilled workers, affected employers will be notified in April 2024 of the amount of past levies to be recovered.