Nagore Trading Pte Ltd (Nagore), a Singapore-incorporated GST-registered firm, allegedly supplied high-value electronic items worth roughly S$114 million to various entities between February 2015 and January 2016, with GST being levied on these sales.

NAGORE TRADING PTE. LTD. was incorporated on 20 December 2014 (Saturday) as a Exempt Private Company Limited by Shares in Singapore.

Shell Company

Nagore is said to be a shell firm with no genuine business operations that were used to produce purchase orders and sales invoices to support the exporters’ later GST refund requests. IRAS received GST refund claims totalling close to S$8 million stemming from Nagore’s claimed transactions.

Nagore’s fraudulent operations are claimed to be the work of four persons, each of whom has been charged with being a knowing party to a fraudulent enterprise and forgery of sales invoices under Section 340(5) of the Companies Act and Section 465 of the Penal Code.

For the offence under Section 340(5) of the Companies Act, they face up to seven years in jail or a fine of up to S$15,000, or both, if convicted, and for the charge under Section 465 of the Penal Code, they face up to four years in prison or a fine of up to S$15,000, or both, if convicted. A fifth guy was also accused under Section 465 of the Penal Code for allegedly helping two of the Nagore criminals in committing crimes.

A fifth guy was charged with forgery under Section 465 of the Penal Code for allegedly helping two of the forgers operating out of Nagore. If convicted, he may face a sentence of up to four years in jail, a fine, or both.

Buy non existent goods

A sixth man, the director of two GST-registered Singapore companies, Ten Directions Enterprises Pte Ltd (Ten Directions) and Forte Communications Pte Ltd (Forte Communications), has also been charged with falsifying accounts under Section 340(5) of the Companies Act and Section 477A of the Penal Code.

He is accused of facilitating the fraud by permitting the two firms to buy products from Nagore that did not exist.

For the offense under Section 340(5) of the Companies Act, he faces up to seven years in jail, a fine, or both if convicted, and for the charge under Section 477A of the Penal Code, he risks up to ten years in prison, a fine, or both if convicted.

The Minister of State for both the Ministry for Education and Ministry for Manpower Gan Siow Huang was issued a quarantine order for two weeks.

In her post, she stated she was anxious about her kids, as they were close contacts of confirmed cases

In her Facebook post she said:

Two of my daughters were issued quarantine order two weeks ago as they were deemed to be close contacts of a covid-19 case. They had the option of serving their quarantine at home or a government quarantine facility. We opted for home quarantine, and that meant my husband and I had to stay at home as well. The quarantine ended yesterday evening after everyone was tested negative for Covid-19.

There were anxious moments – whether my kids had indeed contracted the virus, as well as exams and lessons that were being affected plus having colleagues to cover for work that required physical attendance e.g. parliament. My youngest daughter was not quarantined as she was fortunate to not have been in contact, but this meant that she could not be at home the entire quarantine period.

When the quarantine ended finally, the first thing I did was fetch my youngest daughter and hugged her. She was almost in tears. I feel relieved that everyone is safe and well, and we can return to our normal lives, in the new normal. I’m also grateful to the MOH quarantine ops team and swabbers for supporting those on quarantine and keeping our community safe. For those on home quarantine, hang in there and know that you’re not alone.

A netizen shared a story online and was attracted by the free delivery promotion but turns out its not free at all.

Here is the story:

Hi All, Just wish to precautionary *do not ever* order from Good Year Restaurant. *Avoid* at all cost. I seldom post this kind of thing but honestly after thinking about it,1 month later I decided to post this. Long story short, I ordered food specially for Father’s Day from this restaurant.

Despite they promoting “free delivery for orders about $100 and above”, I was told there still is a $5 delivery fee for the west area. For which I had to proceed with that as I do not wish to delay my Father’s Day reunion dinner. Next, on the day prior, they billed me and suddenly the surcharge is $7 for the delivery fee. Honestly, why so unethical? how to cancel on the day before the big day itself right?

I tried to clarify only to get this reply: “ok pay 5 then thank you” I mean, isn’t that the original agreement?

As pissed as I’m, I do not wish to ruin the day for my dad and my family, hence I just went ahead to pay $7.What else can go wrong right? Yup, delivery on the day itself. At about 5.20 pm, I messaged the person and asked if the food is OTW (on the way), for which they replied yes. Frankly, no message or anything to prompt that your food is on the way, customer have to ownself ask. The food order is 6 pm. The food arrived at 7pm.No apologies were given.

All my family members had to wait since 530pm (since they arrived earlier)Enough said.

Order at your own cost. & time.*add-on* to clarify things.

1.I ordered on 13 June, stated delivery time is 6pm on 19 June.

2. While I understand we should exercise empathy, this kind of customer service attitude really isn’t what is expected for a Father’s Day dinner. It wasn’t a sponsored dinner.*admin do delete if inappropriate* but I really do hope to warn others.

A man shared a story disgruntling people who have the title of manager as he felt that the manager only sends an email and has no actual skills. No wonder he is still not a manager, his mindset is so wrong.

Here is the story:

Why do jobs with the “Manager” in the title warrant such high pay? Associate Manager, BD Manager, Product Manger, Project Manager etc.

Correct me if I am wrong, but these people (often) don’t have domain expertise (ie hard skills) and rely on their soft skills which arguably is so easy. ie just write reports (as long as the general proposal/direction makes sense), reply emails, user outreach, “manage” technical people (which may include designers, artists, writers, producers, engineers, on the ground staff doing manual work etc).

In this case, I am not referring to managers who are domain experts like Art Directors, Engineering Managers etc. The thing is – let these non-creative and non-technical managers switch jobs with technical people. The staff with hard skills will definitely be able to ace the hardest tasks of the manager with ease, while most managers can’t even do the easiest day to day job of the technical staff. Something as simple as design a logo, or maybe write a script to automate stuff; let’s see how long a manager – who often earns significantly higher or at least on par with the technical staff – takes to do such a task. You can say managing people is an “extremely difficult” soft skill. I beg to differ.

Soft skills are simply a byproduct of assimilation into your environment and require no special effort to hone. How many people who pride themselves on their “soft skills” have picked up a book, or gone to a class to learn it? Place someone with little soft skills in a social environment, and they will be able to pick it up automatically. Place someone who has no hard skills in a creative, technical environment, and most likely they will be able to produce results.

For those managers who actively try to learn about their domain by reading up on books and taking courses, fair enough. Or managers who actively go above and beyond to improve company culture, processes and the overall team dynamics, then sure, the manager probably deserves the high pay.

But for managers who sit on their high horse and think that the title and pay make them better than their technical staff, think again. The technical staff can replace you with a click of their fingers, it’s just that they choose not to. To people working in creative and technical industries, know your worth!

Following the URA’s statement and revelation that Safe Distancing ambassadors are allowed to enter people’s homes without a warrant, to check if they are complying with Covid-19 rules, a netizen posted a tongue in cheek comment on the news.

He questioned their need to enter people’s homes by asking: “Sia lah what they want us to do? Paste X on my sofa?”

You know, he does have a point though (lol).

Images source: Whatsapp and Reddit

A netizen, Benny Wee, shared how a member of his household was told on 22 July that he had to be sent to a hotel for quarantine as he had visited a food centre with confirmed cases.

Days passed and no one came to pick him up, he also waited for a call that never came.

Here is the story:

“MOH doesn’t fail to amaze

Someone in my household was called up on the 22nd July that he was required to be sent to hotel for quarantine as he has visited the food center where the confirmed cases were.

He was told to wait for call for someone to pick him up, but day past day it didn’t happen. After calling them back a few times to check on the status but was given the same answer a day or two to come but obviously nobody came.

Blunder continues….

After the 6th day we just predicted it was a home quarantine but nothing was conveyed to us either. Despite MOH knew that the Person under quarantine (PUQ) is sharing common toilet with other members in the house.

Drama continues….

Someone came on the 9th day to do the PCR swab test before the end of quarantine the next day. However waited for another 4 days but no news for the test results or received any SMS for rescindment of quarantine

On the 5th day after the PCR exit test was done, then it was only brought to our attention that MOH has recorded wrongly the identity number for the previous swab test, hence another repeated swab test has to be done and wait again.

The quarantine period was therefore extended for another week from a 10 day Home Quarantine (HQ) to 17 days just to redo the swab test and wait for the prolonged results

The members in our household have been affected by their blunders and we may be just be the tip of such similar case.

We have been patience and understanding throughout this episode but I think it’s time for MOH to at least try to do their work properly, professionally and efficiently.”

Recap

Images source: Google Maps and Unsplash