Home Team dangles carrots for mass recruitment
The Ministry of Home Affairs is on a mission to recruit more than 2,100 new officers, using higher starting salaries and better bonuses to entice interested individuals, according to various media reports.
Diploma holders can look forward to a starting pay of up to S$2,370 (with NS), or S$2,140 (without NS). There will also be a sign-on bonus in the range of S$8,000 and S$10,000, wrote AsiaOne.
These new recruits will be deployed through the Home Team's various security arms -- -- the Singapore Police Force, the Singapore Civil Defence Force, the Central Narcotics Bureau, the Singapore Prison Service and the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority -- to shore up Singapore's defensive capabilities, reported Today.
Retention payouts have also been raised to encourage signed-on personnel to stay in the service, with payouts ranging from S$6,000 to S$10,000 from their third or fifth year of service, added the online news portal. Furthermore, a uniformed officer who stays on for 13 years can look forward to receiving S$34,000 to S$50,000 under this revised scheme.
Yahoo! Singapore users expressed their concerns with the type of people who are hired for the job, suggesting that the Ministry of Home Affairs should actually strengthen their recruitment criteria.
Lim Guan Heng Bahamut commented on our Facebook page, "Hopefully they can get some efficient, friendly and top quality customer service officers. Some senior officers met are freaking rude...."
"Yes, some are very rude. Met some of them at the Toa Payoh Central Neighbourhood Police Centre and when you are reporting a crime, it seems they are not very happy," Eces Feati concurred.
Kiki Putra suggested that "MHA... should look into how to retain good officers and ensure that rude and ineffective ones are not put on the frontline. They're just tarnishing SPF's image.
This initiative comes after Home Affairs Minister Teo Chee Hean announced in Parliament earlier this month that the ministry is looking to beef up its security capabilities to meet new security challenges.
