A 53-year-old Singaporean woman, who is the former director of Faith Educare childcare centres, was charged in court earlier today (17 March) with cheating of fraudulent child care subsidy claims, along with 2 of her female Singaporean employees, aged 42 and 53.
Th trio allegedly cheating the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) into disbursing subsidies for 8 children who had not started their enrolment or didn’t even attend their Faith Educare centres at all.
They allegedly submitted 16 subsidy claims, falsely confirming the children’s attendance from January to August 2016, where they received payouts of about S$4,800.
ECDA is in charge of the Child Car Subsidies Scheme, which disburses subsidies to ECDA licensed childcare centres locally to help them with preschool expenses.
ECDA released a statement noting that the wrongful payouts have since been fully recovered from the childcare centre which is no longer operating.
“For the disbursement of preschool subsidies under ECDA, there are processes and checks in place to ensure the proper use and accountability of Government monies. ECDA maintains close oversight of preschools’ use of government subsidies which includes conducting regular audits.”
Upon conviction, the trio could be jailed up to 10 years, fined or both.