SINGAPORE — The Central Provident Fund Board (CPF) recovered S$420 million last year for late, under- and non-payment of CPF contributions for more than 250,000 workers, said Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin in Parliament today (Aug 5).

He was responding to a question about a recent report by the Auditor-General, which stated that the ministry had failed to detect underpayment of CPF contributions by a company over a 10-year period for employees who performed National Service (NS).

Mr Tan said the CPF Board has several measures in place to ensure the timely and accurate payment of CPF contributions. This includes an automated system to detect late payments, as well as proactive audits on employers.

He added that the Board cannot carry out its audit on each and every one of the 140,000 employers on a yearly basis. Instead, it takes a risk-based approach, targeting enforcement effort at higher-risk industries and firms, and complementing it with investigations on complaints lodged by employees or whistleblowers.

The Board’s audit checks include CPF contributions for NSmen make-up pay. Mr Tan said errors made on NSmen make-up pay are relatively small, but his ministry takes the AGO’s findings very seriously.

He added the CPF Board has strengthened its audit process to better detect employer CPF liabilities arising from NS make-up pay. It now further requires employers to declare which of their employees have gone for reservist training and provide supporting documents, including an acknowledgement from MINDEF on the NS make-up pay amount. CHANNEL NEWSASIA