The Ministry of Defence (Mindef) would like to explain the
eligibility criteria for the National Service Recognition Award
(NSRA), in response to queries from various letter writers ("Not
called for in-camp training, so no NS award" by Mr Leslie Teo Chin
Hin, Aug 21; "Penalised for insufficient high-key ICT sessions" by
Mr Koh Kong Ghee, Monday; "Volunteered to continue NS but denied
award" by Mr Christopher Sim Kwee Teck, Monday; "Redefine end of NS
cycle" by Mr James Ong Ken Sern, Forum Online, Monday; and "Made up
for missed ICT but still not eligible for award" by Mr Vincent Lim
How Siang, Forum Online, Monday).
The NSRA is disbursed to Singaporean operationally ready
national servicemen (NSmen) to recognise their contributions when
they have attained various milestones, namely:
The completion of full-time national
service;
The mid-point of the operationally ready national
service (ORNS) cycle; and
The completion of the ORNS training cycle, which
typically consists of 10 ORNS years and seven high-key in-camp
training (ICT) sessions.
The NSRA was implemented in 2010, and Mr Sim, Mr Ong and Mr Lim
were not eligible for the award as they had completed their ORNS
training cycles before the implementation date.
We seek the understanding of NSmen in this matter as the
introduction of any new policy may not allow it to be effected
retroactively. However, besides the NSRA, we do appreciate all
NSmen in other ways.
Over the years, the Government has provided the National Service
Bonus, additional allotments of the goods and services tax offset
credits and Growth Dividends.
More recently, in conjunction with celebrating 45 years of NS,
the NS45 Safra and HomeTeamNS Benefits scheme was launched to thank
all national servicemen for their contributions to defence.
Mr Teo and Mr Koh did not receive the third milestone NSRA as
they were not called up for the requisite number of ICTs before
they reached the statutory age.
Mindef agrees it should provide opportunities to NSmen who would
like to contribute their services through more ICTs beyond the
statutory age, and we will explore ways to achieve this.
We thank the NSmen for their feedback and will continue to
review our policies to recognise the contributions of our
NSmen.
Teo Eng Dih
Director Manpower
Ministry of Defence