Childcare director who allegedly withdrew funds from accounts still keen to expand

Despite investigations over Mdm Kang's alleged unauthorised withdrawal from Child Development Accounts (CDA) of several children in her care, she is still keen on expanding Sweetlands Childcare.

Mdm Kang and her husband who are both running 11 Sweetlands Childcare centres, bid for four more sites (Pasir Ris Drive, Yuan Ching Road, Fernvale Street and Punggol Walk) in a tender exercise which closed on Oct 8 last year.

Not eligible to expand due to quality component

However, all their bids - and 15 by other operators - were found to have not met eligibility criteria for the "quality component", according to tender results released last month.

The quality component makes up half the "tender score" and includes criteria such as affordability, an operator's track record and the quality of the pre-school programmes. The rest of the tender score depends on the bid price.

The first two sites were awarded respectively to Ms Loy Wee Mee, who runs Pre-School By-The-Park, and Mr Wong Wei Li, who runs AceKidz. The last two were awarded to Greenland Childcare Centre.

Last July, after an audit by the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) raised questions about the withdrawals, the MSF served notice to Madam Chan and Mr Ho to tell them that their status as Approved Persons would be revoked.

The case was also referred to the Commercial Affairs Department.

The couple were given 28 days to explain why their status should not be revoked. They gave their reasons but, after assessing this, the MSF served notice to them on Oct 14 telling them that the status would be revoked on Oct 21.

Approved Person has been appointed

They are now not authorised to make any deductions from CDAs, but a new Approved Person has since been appointed so children enrolled at Sweetlands Childcare centres can still use their CDAs to pay childcare fees.

Meanwhile, police investigations are still ongoing. The couple could each be fined up to $20,000 if convicted of breaching the Child Development Co-Savings Regulations.

The MSF said last year that all Sweetlands centres are allowed to operate as per usual as there are no issues with the safety or well-being of children enrolled at the centres.