Three Former Staff of Now-Defunct WSH Training Provider, PSU Global Pte. Ltd, Convicted for Forging Course Certificates and Training Records
Two former corporate officers and one former trainer of a now-defunct Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) training provider, PSU Global Pte. Ltd. (PSU), have been sentenced to imprisonment for their involvement in forging WSH course certificates and training records.
2 Mohan Prabu, Veeranan Seeman, and Murugaiyan Senthil were convicted under the Workplace Safety and Health Act (WSHA) for issuing certificates that fraudulently certified that trainees had successfully completed their WSH courses. The fraudulent scheme entailed:
- Trainers conducting significantly shortened WSH courses
- Trainees being guaranteed a pass regardless of their competence in the WSH courses
- Creation of false attendance sheets
- Upload of false trainees’ results to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM)’s training record system
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Name
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Description of offence
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Charge(s)
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Global Sentence
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Mohan Prabu
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Mohan served as PSU’s director and instructed trainers to carry out the fraudulent practices. He provided a digital copy of his signature so that the forged certificates could be signed under his name.
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Section 53(b) read with section 48(1) of the WSHA
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Twenty (20) weeks’ imprisonment
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Veeranan Seeman
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Seeman was the training manager who conducted the shortened courses and assisted in manipulating test results.
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Section 53(b) read with section 109 of the Penal Code
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Sixteen (16) weeks’ imprisonment
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Murugaiyan Senthil
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Senthil became a director in August 2019 and continued the fraudulent practices and gave consent for forged certificates to be issued under his name.
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Section 53(b) read with section 48(1) of the WSHA
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Six (6) months’ imprisonment
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MOM’s Findings and Follow-Up Actions
4 Investigations revealed that the three persons were involved in a coordinated scheme to issue certificates that falsely represented that the full course requirements had been met. Practical sessions were either skipped or completed within an hour. Trainees were provided with test answers or instructed to write in pencil so that wrong answers could be erased and amended by the trainers. All trainees were guaranteed a pass regardless of their competence. The forged certificates were then uploaded to MOM’s Training Records System, falsely declaring that the trainees had completed their training and were competent to perform safety-critical tasks.
5 To safeguard workplace safety, MOM has informed all affected employers and workers that WSH certificates issued by PSU are not recognised. Employers must ensure that affected workers are not deployed to roles requiring the invalidated certifications unless they have completed training with an accredited provider recognised by the Commissioner for WSH. MOM’s checks also found that most of the affected workers had not been deployed to perform the specific tasks covered by the forged certificates. For workers who had been deployed, there was no evidence that their deployment resulted in any safety incidents.
6 Employers whose workers had obtained “Higher Skilled” R1 status under the Multi-Skilling Scheme based on these forged certificates have been informed of the revised foreign worker levy rates. MOM has also notified affected employers of any past levies to be recovered, as levies should have been charged based on the workers’ actual certified skills.
7 Mr Sebastian Tan, Director of MOM’s Occupational Safety and Health Inspectorate, said “Proper training and certification are essential in ensuring work activities can be carried out safely. This case was a deliberate and coordinated abuse of the WSH training system with employers being misled into believing that their workers were properly trained. This could have posed serious safety risks on the ground. We remind all training providers of their obligations under the WSH Act, and MOM will not hesitate to take action against culpable parties for such fraudulent activities.”