SINGAPORE - Commanders in all three services in the Singapore Armed Forces have put strong emphasis on safety and invested substantial resources to enhance safety processes, said the SAF's chief safety officer.
However, areas of improvement remain, including in open reporting and engaging commanders on the ground such as platoon commanders and sergeants so that the rank-and-file can buy into efforts to improve safety, said Brigadier-General Tan Chee Wee, who is SAF Inspector-General.
BG Tan, who is also Chief of Staff-Joint Staff, was giving an update on his office's work about a year after it was set up.
The Inspector-General's Office (IGO) has audited 70 per cent of all formations and their sub-units across the SAF, with the rest to be completed by September this year.
Set up following the death of actor Aloysius Pang who met with an accident during an overseas exercise in New Zealand, the IGO reports directly to the Chief of Defence Force and has full authority to scrutinise and enforce safety processes and practices at all levels of the SAF.
Measures implemented since then, said BG Tan, include introducing safety as a core mission outcome in units' training evaluations across all three services.
Safety performance now has a heavier weightage during the annual SAF Best Unit Competition and Army Training Evaluation Centre (Atec) assessment.
"By incorporating safety as a core mission outcome, we hope to influence the way the commanders think about safety and incorporate it into their preparations," said BG Tan.
Ground audits and inspections are conducted for all high-risk and field training, he added.
Training supervision has also been strengthened, with full-time safety officers deployed to all training units.
Regular, experienced trainers are now assigned to conduct high-risk in-camp training for NSmen, said BG Tan.
Senior Minister of State for Defence Heng Chee How addressed MPs' questions on training safety on Monday (March 2), during the debate on his ministry's budget.
"Here at the SAF, we are committed to training our national servicemen effectively, and more importantly, safely. Each year, families entrust their sons to us. We therefore hold ourselves accountable for every national serviceman," he said.
Mr Heng said the IGO interviews servicemen at every level - from commanders to safety appointment holders and soldiers - to understand how safety measures are practised on the ground and whether soldiers feel comfortable providing feedback on safety.
Asked about efforts to build a strong safety culture, BG Tan said in a phone interview with reporters last week that one of the challenges was ensuring safety consistently over different batches of conscripts, including NSmen who serve only a few weeks in a year.
He said surveys with both active and NS units found that units that have embedded safety into their daily routine are usually the ones with the strongest safety culture, and by extension, a strong safety record.
"So what we have done at the SAF level is really push the services and the units to institutionalise safety as part of the units' daily routine," he said, adding that this should include daily safety briefings, and chances for soldiers to highlight any safety observations during training.
Asked if lower-ranked soldiers are worried about offending their commanders if they make safety reports, BG Tan said they have indeed received such feedback.
"I do not think it is unnatural for a military organisation. This links back to what I spoke about earlier, about really engaging the 'last-mile' leadership.
"In terms of our formal education of commanders in the leadership schools, as well as the regular engagement of unit commanding officers which are lower-level commanders, that is where we want to focus our work.
"This is to make sure that they communicate to their soldiers, to try and reduce this inhibition by them at the last mile, so they feel comfortable to openly report unsafe behaviour or unsafe practices."
He added that the SafeGuardian mobile app, which allows servicemen to report hazards and access safety directives on the go, among other things, would be rolled out to the rest of the SAF this year after it was trialled by the navy.
New equipment will also incorporate safety into their design. For instance, the Hunter armoured fighting vehicle, commissioned last year, has emergency stop features, said BG Tan.
