Workforce Singapore Agency Act 2003

“Agency” means the Workforce Singapore Agency established by section 3;

“Chairperson” means the member of the Agency who is appointed under section 7A as the Chairperson of the Agency and includes any temporary Chairperson of the Agency;

“chief executive” means the chief executive of the Agency, and includes any individual acting in that capacity;

“Deputy Chairperson” means the member of the Agency who is appointed under section 7A as the Deputy Chairperson of the Agency and includes any temporary Deputy Chairperson of the Agency;

“member” means any member of the Agency and includes any temporary member of the Agency;

“transferred agency” means any transferred agency specified in the second column of the Schedule;

“transferring body” means any transferring body specified in the first column of the Schedule.

A body called the Workforce Singapore Agency is established, which is a body corporate with perpetual succession and is, by that name, capable of —

The Agency may perform any of its functions or carry out any of its duties under the business name of Workforce Singapore, or another business name that the Minister from time to time allows.

The Agency must cause notice of every business name approved under subsection (2) to be published in the Gazette; but failure to do so does not invalidate the approval or use of that name.

The Agency must have a common seal and that seal may be broken, changed, altered or made anew as the Agency thinks fit.

All deeds and other documents requiring the seal of the Agency must be sealed with the common seal of the Agency.

All instruments to which the common seal is affixed must be signed by any 2 members generally or specially authorised by the Agency for the purpose or by one member and the chief executive.

The Agency may, by resolution or otherwise in writing, appoint any officer of the Agency or any other agent either generally or in any particular case to execute or sign on behalf of the Agency any agreement or other instrument not under seal in relation to any matter coming within the powers of the Agency.

All courts, judges and persons acting judicially are to take judicial notice of the common seal of the Agency affixed to any document and presume that it was duly affixed.

The Agency consists of at least 9 and not more than 15 members.

Each member is to be appointed by the Minister by instrument in writing.

The Minister may appoint the chief executive to be a member.

A member holds office on such conditions and for such term, not exceeding 3 years, as the Minister may specify in his or her appointment, and may be re-appointed.

Any member may at any time, by written notice to the Minister, resign from his or her office.

The Minister may at any time revoke the appointment of any member without assigning any reason.

If a member dies or resigns or has his or her appointment revoked, the Minister may appoint any person to fill the vacancy for the residue of the term for which the vacating member was appointed.

The Agency must pay to the Chairperson, the Deputy Chairperson and other members such salaries, fees and allowances as the Minister may determine.

The Minister may, by instrument in writing, appoint —

The Chairperson or Deputy Chairperson holds office until whichever of the following first happens:

The Deputy Chairperson of the Agency has and may exercise all of the functions and powers of the Chairperson in relation to a matter if —

The quorum at every meeting of the Agency is one‑third of the total number of members.

The Chairperson or, in his or her absence, the Deputy Chairperson presides at all meetings of the Agency and, in the absence of the Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson, the members present must elect one of their number to preside.

Meetings of the Agency must be held at such times and places as the Chairperson may determine.

All questions arising at any meeting must be decided by a majority of votes of the members present and voting.

At any meeting of the Agency, the Chairperson or, in his or her absence, the Deputy Chairperson or member elected under subsection (2) to preside, has a deliberative vote and, in the case of an equality of votes, he or she also has a casting vote.

The validity of any proceedings of the Agency is not affected by any vacancy among its members or by any defect in the appointment of any member.

Subject to the provisions of this Act and the Public Sector (Governance) Act 2018, the Agency may regulate its own proceedings.

Subject to the provisions of this Act, the functions and duties of the Agency are —

The Agency may undertake such other functions as the Minister may assign to the Agency and in so undertaking —

Nothing in this section imposes on the Agency, directly or indirectly, any form of duty or liability enforceable by proceedings before any court to which the Agency would not otherwise be subject.

The Agency may appoint, alter or discharge committees, consisting of one or more persons (whether members or not), and define or vary the terms of reference of those committees.

Subject to this Act and the Public Sector (Governance) Act 2018 and to the control of the Agency, each committee appointed under this section may regulate its procedure in any manner that the committee thinks fit.

The Agency may in respect of a specified matter or class of matters, by writing, delegate to any member, officer or committee of the Agency or any of its agents (including the Government) any of its powers under this Act or under any other written law.

Every member, officer or committee purporting to act pursuant to a delegation under this section is, in the absence of proof to the contrary, presumed to be acting in accordance with the terms of the delegation.

There must be a chief executive of the Agency, whose appointment, removal, discipline and promotion must be in accordance with the Public Sector (Governance) Act 2018.

The Agency may, subject to the Public Sector (Governance) Act 2018, appoint an individual to act temporarily as the chief executive during any period, or during all periods, when the chief executive —

The Agency may, subject to the Public Sector (Governance) Act 2018, appoint and employ, on such terms and conditions as it may determine, such other officers, employees, consultants and agents as may be necessary for the effective performance of its functions.

No suit or other legal proceedings shall lie personally against any member, officer or employee of the Agency or any other person acting under the direction of the Agency for anything which is in good faith done or intended to be done in the execution or purported execution of this Act or any other written law.

Where the Agency provides a service to the public whereby information is supplied to the public, neither the Agency nor any of its members, officers or employees involved in the supply of such information shall be liable for any loss or damage suffered by any member of the public by reason of any error or omission of whatever nature appearing therein or however caused if made in good faith and in the ordinary course of the discharge of the duties of those members, officers or employees.

A copy of all annual estimates of revenue and expenditure and supplementary estimates must, upon their adoption by the Agency, be sent without delay to the Minister.

The Minister may approve or disallow any item or portion of any item shown in the annual estimates or supplementary estimates.

The Minister must return the annual estimates or supplementary estimates as amended under subsection (2) to the Agency, and the Agency is bound by the Minister’s decision.

Despite any provision of this section, the Agency may transfer all or any part of moneys assigned to one item of expenditure to any item under the same head of expenditure in any estimates approved by the Minister.

The Agency must open and maintain one or more accounts with such bank or banks as the Agency thinks fit.

Every such account must be operated by such person authorised to do so by the Agency.

As from 1 September 2003 —

If any question arises as to whether any particular property, or whether any particular asset, interest, right, privilege, liability or obligation has been transferred to or vested in the Agency under subsection (1), a certificate under the hand of the Minister for Finance is conclusive evidence that the property, asset, interest, right, privilege, liability or obligation was or was not so transferred or vested.

Any immovable property to be transferred to and vested in the Agency under subsection (1) must be held by the Agency upon such tenure and subject to such terms and conditions as the President may determine.

All proceedings in respect of the transferred properties by or against a transferring body which are pending on 1 September 2003 may be continued, completed and enforced by or against the Agency.

Every agreement relating to any of the transferred properties to which a transferring body was a party immediately before 1 September 2003, whether or not of such nature that the rights and liabilities under that agreement could be assigned, has effect as from that date as if —

As from 1 September 2003, such persons or categories of persons who, immediately before that date, were employed by the transferring bodies and posted to the transferred agencies must be transferred to the service of the Agency on terms no less favourable than those enjoyed by them immediately prior to their transfer.

If any question arises as to whether any person or category of persons has been transferred to the service of the Agency under subsection (1), a certificate under the hand of the Minister is conclusive evidence that the person or category of persons was or was not so transferred.

Until such time as terms and conditions of service are drawn up by the Agency, the scheme and terms and conditions of service in the transferring body from which the person was transferred under subsection (1) continue to apply to every person so transferred as if he or she were still in the employment of the transferring body.

The terms and conditions to be drawn up by the Agency must take into account the terms and conditions of service (including salaries and accrued rights to leave) enjoyed by the persons transferred to the service of the Agency under section 33 while in the employment of the transferring body.

Any term or condition relating to the length of service with the Agency must recognise the length of service of the persons so transferred while in the employment of the transferring body to be service with the Agency.

The terms and conditions of service to be drawn up by the Agency must not adversely affect the conditions that would have been applicable to persons transferred to the service of the Agency as regards any pension, gratuity or allowance payable under the Pensions Act 1956.

Where a person has been transferred to the service of the Agency under section 33, the Government is liable to pay to the Agency such portion of any pension, gratuity or allowance payable to the person on his or her retirement as the same bears to the proportion which the aggregate amount of his or her pensionable emoluments during his or her service with the Government bears to the aggregate amount of his or her pensionable emoluments during his or her service under both the Government and the Agency.

Where any person in the service of the Agency, whose case does not fall within the scope of any pension or other schemes established under this section, retires or dies in the service of the Agency or is discharged from such service, the Agency may grant to him or her or to such other person wholly or partly dependent on him or her, as the Agency thinks fit, such allowance or gratuity as the Agency may determine.

Where, on 1 September 2003, any disciplinary proceedings were pending against any employee of the transferring body transferred to the service of the Agency, the proceedings are to be carried on and completed by the Agency.

Where, on 1 September 2003, any matter was in the course of being heard or investigated or had been heard or investigated by a committee acting under due authority but no order, ruling or direction had been made on the matter, the committee must complete the hearing or investigation and make such order, ruling or direction as it could have made under the authority vested in it before that date.

Any order, ruling or direction made by a committee under this section is to be treated as an order, a ruling or a direction of the Agency and has the same force or effect as if it had been made by the Agency pursuant to the authority vested in the Agency under this Act.

All proceedings or causes of action pending or existing immediately before 1 September 2003 by or against a transferring body in respect of its transferred agency may be continued, completed and enforced by or against the Agency.

The Agency has the exclusive right to the use of such symbol or representation as the Agency may select or devise and thereafter display or exhibit that symbol or representation in connection with its activities or affairs.

Any person who uses a symbol or representation identical with that of the Agency, or which so resembles the Agency’s symbol or representation as to deceive or cause confusion, or to be likely to deceive or to cause confusion, shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both.

The powers under this section may be exercised only for the purpose of inquiring into or ascertaining —

The Agency, or an officer, employee or agent of the Agency duly authorised by the Agency for the purposes of this section, may, at any reasonable time, do any of the following, without involving any search of any property or person:

The power to require a person to furnish any document or information under subsection (2)(c) includes the power —

Any person who —

To avoid doubt, it is not a defence in any proceeding for an offence under subsection (1)(a) that the accused did not obtain any incentive, grant or loan from the Agency.

Except for the purpose of the performance of his or her duties or the exercise of his or her functions or when lawfully required to do so by any court or where required or allowed by the provisions of any written law, a person who is or has been —

Any person who contravenes subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $2,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to both.

Where, in a proceeding for an offence under this Act, it is necessary to prove the state of mind of a corporation in relation to a particular conduct, evidence that —

Where a corporation commits an offence under this Act, a person —

A person mentioned in subsection (2) may rely on a defence that would be available to the corporation if it were charged with the offence with which the person is charged and, in doing so, the person bears the same burden of proof that the corporation would bear.

To avoid doubt, this section does not affect the application of —

To avoid doubt, subsection (2) also does not affect the liability of the corporation for an offence under this Act, and applies whether or not the corporation is convicted of the offence.

In this section —

“corporation” includes a limited liability partnership within the meaning of section 2(1) of the Limited Liability Partnerships Act 2005;

“officer”, in relation to a corporation, means any director, partner, chief executive, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the corporation, and includes any person purporting to act in any such capacity;

“state of mind” of a person includes —

Where, in a proceeding for an offence under this Act, it is necessary to prove the state of mind of an unincorporated association or a partnership in relation to a particular conduct, evidence that —

Where an unincorporated association or a partnership commits an offence under this Act, a person —

A person mentioned in subsection (2) may rely on a defence that would be available to the unincorporated association or partnership if it were charged with the offence with which the person is charged and, in doing so, the person bears the same burden of proof that the unincorporated association or partnership would bear.

To avoid doubt, this section does not affect the application of —

To avoid doubt, subsection (2) also does not affect the liability of an unincorporated association or a partnership for an offence under this Act, and applies whether or not the unincorporated association or partnership is convicted of the offence.

In this section —

“officer”, in relation to an unincorporated association (other than a partnership), means the president, the secretary, or any member of the committee of the unincorporated association, and includes —

“partner” includes a person purporting to act as a partner;

“state of mind” of a person includes —

Subject to subsection (3), a document or certificate purporting to be a report under the hand of the chief executive or any officer authorised by the chief executive upon any matter or thing in connection with the administration or enforcement of this Act, or with an investigation carried out under this Act, is admissible as evidence in any proceedings under this Act and is prima facie evidence of the facts stated in the document or certificate.

For the purposes of this section, a document purporting to be a certificate mentioned in subsection (1) on its production by the prosecution is, until the contrary is proved, deemed to be such a certificate.

A certificate mentioned in subsection (1) shall not be received in evidence under that subsection unless the person charged has been given —

Where a certificate of the chief executive or any officer authorised by the chief executive is admitted in evidence under subsection (1), the person charged may require the chief executive or such officer to be called as a witness for the prosecution and be cross‑examined as if he or she had given evidence of the matters stated in the certificate.

The chief executive, or an employee of the Agency authorised in writing by the Agency, may compound any offence under this Act that is prescribed under subsection (4) as a compoundable offence by collecting from a person reasonably suspected of having committed the offence a sum not exceeding the lower of the following:

On payment of the sum of money, no further proceedings are to be taken against that person in respect of the offence.

All sums collected under this section must be paid into the Consolidated Fund.

The Agency may, with the approval of the Minister, make regulations to prescribe the offences that may be compounded and the method and procedure by which those offences may be compounded.

The Agency may, with the approval of the Minister, make regulations for all or any of the following purposes:

Regulations made under subsection (1) may provide that a contravention of those regulations shall be an offence and shall be punishable with a fine not exceeding $10,000 or with imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or with both and, in the case of a continuing offence, with a further fine not exceeding $1,000 for every day or part of a day during which the offence continues after conviction.