Response to Lianhe Zaobao Forum Letter on "To stop tragedy from happening to national service personnel"

Safety and Accountability Important to SAF

We thank Mr Huang Min Liang for his letter on 23 Nov 2012, "To stop tragedy from happening to National Service (NS) personnel".

Safety is of utmost importance to the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF). The SAF benchmarks our systems and processes with other established armed forces to ensure that our safety system is up to date. The SAF also takes reference from the Occupational Health & Safety Assessment Standards (OHSAS) and aligns our safety standards where applicable. SAF safety standards also comply with the Singapore Workplace Safety and Health Act (WSHA). 

The SAF investigates every training incident or near-misses which have or may cause serious injury or property damage, as well as reports of unsafe practices and safety breaches. The appropriate follow up actions are then taken to prevent similar occurrences in future. For every National Serviceman's death, the Armed Forces Council convenes an independent Committee of Inquiry (COI) to investigate the incident. The COI has full powers and access to information and personnel to investigate the circumstances leading to death, determine the contributory factors and make recommendations to rectify any lapses. For example, COIs were convened to investigate the deaths of PTE Lee Rui Feng Dominique Sarron and 3SG Tan Mou Sheng. The Ministry of Defence and the SAF have publicly shared the two COIs' findings, including the safety breaches uncovered. Their recommendations have been implemented to improve our safety systems and processes. In addition, an SAF Safety Inspectorate will be set up to promulgate best practices across the Services, enhance the robustness of safety related policies and look into areas where safety can be strengthened.  

The SAF is determined to put things right and correct any inadequacies uncovered. More importantly, we want to ensure that lax attitudes toward training safety do not take root in our system. The personnel involved in both COI cases have been re-deployed to assignments which do not oversee soldiers in training or operations. The Chief Military Prosecutor will determine if these personnel should be subjected to a General Court Martial (GCM), to establish their degree of culpability and if found guilty, mete out the appropriate punishment. Police investigations are also on-going to determine whether to prosecute the personnel involved in Civil Court. 

To build a strong safety culture, soldiers are encouraged to report near-misses, unsafe practices or safety breaches. Soldiers may report directly to their commanders, through the 24-hour Army Safety Hotline (9-SAFETY-1 or 9-723389-1) or through the MINDEF intranet. 

COL Kenneth Liow
Director Public Affairs
Ministry of Defence

MINDEF's reply was published as "武装部队重视安全标准", Lianhe Zaobao, 27 Nov 12