PAC finds weaknesses in foreign worker intake process

Reports by MARTIN CARVALHO, HEMANANTHANI SIVANANDAM, RAHIMY RAHIM and TARRENCE TAN

IDENTITY theft, the use of middlemen and “special applications” for the supply of foreign workers were among issues uncovered during a probe by Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on foreign worker intake, it was revealed.

“The PAC found that approvals given for special applications were higher than approvals for applications made through the normal process. This is... not in accordance with the original intention of tightening the qualifying process for foreign workers’ quota, ” PAC chairman Wong Kah Woh said.