Due to its small size and lack of natural resources, Singapore has to constantly focus on maintaining economic competitiveness and moving industry and services up the value-chain. In these circumstances, having manpower in the right numbers and with the right skills to meet the needs of business is a pre-requisite for success. The demand for skilled manpower could not, however, be met by the local workforce alone. The inflow of global talents would greatly augment the expertise and cultural vibrancy of the workforce in Singapore.
However, before 2008, businesses which were able to find suitable foreign professionals to fill their job vacancies, faced an onerous, opaque and lengthy Employment Pass (EP) application process. The government mindset then was that each application could potentially be fraudulent and thus had to be laboriously checked, re-checked and assessed by various processing officers. Applications had to be completed from scratch each time, and submitted together with copies of all the documents cited. In 2002, the Ministry had launched a basic Employment Pass Online (EPOL) system, which had limited web capabilities. At that time, less than 20% of applications were submitted via EPOL as the system was not user-friendly. Processing time took up to 2 months as it depended heavily on the ability of the processing officers to complete the assessment of some 25,000 hardcopy applications submitted monthly. As the details of the complex evaluation criteria for EP were not made public, employers had uncertainty of whether their submitted application would eventually be approved. This lack of transparency led to much frustration amongst employers and applicants, together with an equally high rejection rate of 35%.
Even when a pass was approved, the collection process was problematic. Applicants had to turn up at the Singapore Ministry of Manpower (MOM) premises, take a queue number and wait for their turn so that documents could be verified and their passports stamped with an Employment Pass. This could take up to 4 hours during the peak periods. For foreigners visiting the MOM for the first time, they were overwhelmed and confused by the vast number of services available. The lobby itself was cluttered with functions and directions that confused customers more than guided them. The frustration faced by EP holders in getting their employment passes was an unpleasant start to working and living in Singapore.
Furthermore, as part of Singapore’s efforts to enhance national security, new provisions require fingerprints of EP holders and their families to be captured before they would be issued a secured Employment Pass card. This meant that applicants could expect an even longer waiting and transaction time once the new requirements were implemented. The quality of service provided to MOM’s customers would be further compromised if nothing was done. .
In the global war for talent, opportunities could only be seized through speedy, confident and quality service from the importing country. There was an urgent need for MOM to revamp its administrative process for handling applications and issue of its professional work passes.
|