The genuine problems of the MOM Jobs Bank

After more than a month of the Jobs Bank coming into operation there were high expectations that many Singaporeans would have found jobs through this strictly pro Singaporean apparatus of the Govt. So I was looking for some happy statistics to clap for my star minister for a job well done. But no data, really, can’t find any data. Now want to cheer for him also no chance to do it.
 
Then I read a few comments in the social media, including the authoritative comments of Leong Sze Hian, and it is confirmed that anyone hoping for some useful data coming out from this Jobs Bank Scheme is going to be disappointed. I am of course. And I was angry initially. I want to cheer, I want to clap and tell the citizens, especially the jobless PMEs and the PME taxi drivers that there is hope. Now I can’t. So don’t blame me for being angry. Felt being let down by another scheme that looked so good on paper. You mean they didn’t know that everyone is watching and looking for some numbers on this scheme?
 
On reflection, on hindsight, admittedly foresight not very good, I have second thoughts. It is really an impossible task for our boys and girls to design a programme to track the performance of this scheme. No way they could do it. There are just no good programmers to do such a simple job as the programmers are all foreigners. And very likely MOM cannot use foreign programmers for this job to show that this is pedigree Singaporean stuff.
 
What about having a few boys and girls thinking through a manual procedure like we used to do before we become an intelligent city and people? Surely must have some procedures for the companies to make monthly reports to MOM would generate some numbers, not up to date to the last minute and not computer perfect, but some data would still be good and available.
 
Now I have to figure out why our boys and girls could not think through a simple administrative procedure that works. First guess, they never approach the Administrative Service where all the talented administrative officers work. So they probably depend on non administrative officers to do an administrative job that they are not trained to do, sure would not work.
 
Or maybe they need some financial incentives like a doubling in pay. I think a doubling in pay from the ministers to the clerical stuff would be a good start.
 
So there you are, the MOM could not produce any data to tell how many Singaporeans applied for the jobs in the Jobs Bank and how many were successful and employed by the companies putting up advertisements for jobs for Singaporeans. And definitely they would not know how many of these companies already recruited foreigners after failing to find any suitable Singaporeans for their vacancies.
 
But MOM has many good data, like 65,000 jobs available in the Jobs Banks and something like 10,000 companies participating. Dunno if they know how many Singaporeans applied for these jobs. No need to ask how many were successful as they have confirmed they did not have such data.
 
Let me volunteer a suggestion. Since no Singaporean can design a decent programme to capture all these necessary information that the people would like to know, perhaps MOM can make an exception and outsource this task to the foreigners to design one. Make sure they write the programme quickly so that we can have some data to chew on.
 
And please don’t jump the gun to kpkb that MOM is useless or the Jobs Bank is a another wayang. There are obviously some genuine problems like lack of programming talents or administrative officers to design an administrative procedure that could produce the results expected.
 
PS, I am just speculating and I did not have access to how they work. Maybe I am just drumming. Please forgive me for my ignorance.

Kopi Level - Green