A*STAR institutes admin director worked with her
husband, brother and sister-in-law
Jose Raymond
[email protected]
IT IS not uncommon to have relatives working in the same
organisation, but to avoid conflicts of interest, most employers
try to avoid placing them in the same department, particularly if
one relative is subordinate to the other.
However, in an unusual situation at a local research institute, the
husband, brother and sister-in-law of the director of
administration were hired for positions that came under her
purview.
The Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN), a
research institute under the Agency for Science, Technology and
Research (A*STAR) umbrella, only has about 150 employees, and the
fact that for the last 18 months or so, three close relatives of a
senior member of the management team have been working in her
division has raised some eyebrows among the staff.
The administration directors husband was hired as the IBNs head
of facilities, while her brother was a senior officer in the IT
department and his wife was a senior officer in the administration
department.
In response to TODAYs queries, A*STARs spokeswoman Michelle Khor
said it is the agency that approves the appointment of executive
directors and senior staff of its research institutes.
Recruitment of other staff by each institute is based on job
requirements, candidates experience and job fit. Consistent with
the public sector practice, A*STAR recruits and selects candidates
according to a set of criteria such as qualifications, experience,
skills and personal qualities.
She added that A*STARs guidelines restrict the employment of
staff with conflicting relationships including those with family
relations.
Conflicting relations must be declared upfront and any such
employment must be surfaced to the A*STAR Management for approval.
A*STAR authorised the executive directors of research institutes to
employ staff members at their discretion except senior scientists
above a certain grade.
She said IBNs executive director, Professor Jackie Ying, had
informed A*STAR of the employment of the husband of the director of
administration, and that the husband reported directly to Prof Ying
and not to his wife.
The other two relatives, Ms Khor said, were hired at a time when
the IBN experienced rapid and significant growth at its new
premise in The Biopolis.
She said: IBN has informed A*STAR that these two hires were meant
to be temporary measures to address the manpower shortage in
specific departments during the transitional period. Arrangements
are being made to transfer these two staff members to other A*STAR
units.
When told of the situation at IBN, various human resource directors
of government statutory boards TODAY spoke to said this was very
poor HR practice.
One HR director said: If it was a question of having two brilliant
scientists or two fantastic economists who were husband and wife in
the same statutory board, then I believe there could be an
exception. But the usual practice is never to have couples or
relatives, report to each other.
There will always be questions of fairness, especially when it
comes to issues like appraisals for annual bonuses. Also, there
could be issues of security involved if there are too many
relatives working in the same statutory board.
As an example, Singapore Airlines does not allow a husband and wife
among its cabin staff to fly together. Similarly, the Singapore
Police Force will not have a couple working in the same division,
especially if one is superior to the other.
Asked for its stand on the matter, the Public Service Division
said: Family relations is not a factor and we have an open
recruitment policy which is based on merit and candidates are
selected according to criteria like qualifications, experience,
skills and personal qualities.
However, for good HR practice and to avoid possible conflict of
interests, we would avoid posting married couples or family members
to a unit where one officer is subordinate to the other.
The institutes executive director Jackie Ying said the man in
question did not
report to his wife. A*STAR institutes admin director worked with
her husband, brother and sister-in-law
