SINGAPORE (TIP): An Indian-origin woman director of a Singapore company was on Nov 12 charged with making false declarations of foreign employees’ salaries to the government to obtain Employment Passes (EPs).

Parmjit Kaur, a former director of bar and dining chain Harry’s International, was charged with 20 counts of making false declaration of salaries in the work pass applications to the Controller of Work Passes.

The Ministry of Manpower said Kaur made the declaration between April 8 and September 2, 2013. Investigations reported that Kaur instructed her subordinates to declare that the fixed monthly salaries of the foreign employees would be 3,100 dollars, salary requirement to obtain EPs.

Kaur allegedly knew that the 20 foreign employees would be paid less than what was declared in their work pass applications, the ministry said.

Her case has been adjourned to December 10.

If found guilty, she faces a maximum fine of 20,000 dollars and could be jailed for up to two years.

The ministry said it conducts stringent checks to detect and enforce against false applications.

The ministry is currently investigating other similar false declaration cases involving 241 foreigners hired by 95 employers.

The EPs allows foreign professionals, managers and executives to work in Singapore. Candidates need to earn at least 3,300 dollars qualifications.

In April 2014, the ministry charged eight employers who were franchisees of convenience store 7-Eleven for making false declarations and fined them between 8,000 dollars and 56,000 dollars.

In November 2014, the ministry also recovered 32,000 dollars as fine from the director of Indian restaurant Blue Diamond for making false declarations.