2 men charged with cheating linked to grants; IRAS and SBF disbursed more than $98k in total
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At the time of their alleged offences, Ronald Quek Yi Jun (left) was the chief executive of information technology consultancy RH Kingsmen, while Ong Hanjie (right) was a director there.
ST PHOTOS: KELVIN CHNG
SINGAPORE - Two senior executives of a firm allegedly worked together to dupe the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) and Singapore Business Federation (SBF) into disbursing monies totalling more than $98,000.
At the time of their alleged offences, Ronald Quek Yi Jun was the chief executive of information technology consultancy RH Kingsmen, while Ong Hanjie was a director there.
Police said in a statement on March 24 that both Singaporeans are no longer holding such posts with the company.
On March 25, Quek, 43, and Ong, 44, were charged with multiple counts of cheating. Ong was also charged with one count of falsification of accounts.
Each man faces two cheating charges linked to IRAS. The charges allegedly involved the Jobs Growth Incentive (JGI) scheme which IRAS had administered.
In their statement, the police said the initiative was introduced to help employers create long-term jobs for locals by offering up to 50 per cent wage support for hiring mature workers for up to 18 months.
The JGI payouts were computed monthly based on Central Provident Fund (CPF) contributions.
According to the police, RH Kingsmen allegedly made CPF contributions for four purported hires between March 2021 and June 2022.
IRAS is then said to have disbursed more than $78,000 in payouts to the firm as a result.
A police spokesperson added: “Further... investigations revealed that these four purported workers did not perform any work for the company nor did they receive salaries based on the mandatory CPF contributions.”
Separately, Quek and Ong face four cheating charges each after they allegedly worked together to cheat SBF.
These alleged offences were linked to the SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways Programme – Company Attachments (SGUP-CA).
The initiative was administered by SBF, a programme partner appointed by statutory board Workforce Singapore.
The police said the SGUP-CA was introduced as a full-time attachment programme for mid-career individuals.
It offered attachments of up to six months to help them acquire industry-relevant experience at host organisations.
These organisations then received funding for the training allowances provided to these individuals.
A police spokesperson said: “(The two men) allegedly conspired to submit fraudulent claims to SBF, falsely representing that RH Kingsmen had onboarded three individuals for the SGUP-CA and had paid them the approved training allowances between July and October 2021.”
Ong is also accused of falsifying payslips between July and December 2021 to support the claims.
SBF then allegedly disbursed more than $20,000 in grants to the company, said the police.
The cases involving Ong and Quek have been adjourned to April 20.
