http://www.divaasia.com/article/4517
Fri, Jul 24, 2009
The Straits Times
Over 5,600 checks on marital records
by Theresa Tan
THOUSANDS of people check on marital records every year and half of them are not even thinking of tying the knot.
An average of 5,640 such checks were conducted each year in the past three years, a Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) spokesman told The Straits Times.
About half of these checks are done by individuals, presumably to find out if their prospective spouses, or even potential sons- or daughters-in-law, had been married before. The rest are by companies, said the MCYS spokesman.
And many of these firms could be private detective outfits, hired either by spouses or even potential employers, according to a check by The Straits Times.
In May, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan said his ministry was studying ways to make marital records more readily available. For example, MCYS is considering making public the maintenance payments by divorcees to their former families, in the light of rising divorce rates.
The minister said: 'The next spouse at least will know what sort of man she's marrying. She'll know whether he has discharged his responsibilities and realise that men don't change their spots, and make an informed decision before they proceed.'
Dr Balakrishnan added that he was looking at making online searches for marital records free.
Currently, people have to pay $35 to the Registry of Marriages (ROM) to check if someone has registered a marriage and who he or she is wed to.
Often, it is a suspicious spouse who hires a private investigator to check on a philandering partner, though some firms also engage private investigators to conduct background checks on potential candidates for top jobs.
Private investigator Lionel de Souza said the reason companies do these checks is people in high positions must have good moral standards 'so you can't have a Romeo there, as trade secrets can be revealed in moments of ecstasy'.
These background checks are usually on a candidate's character, whether the person has any vices, such as gambling, and why he or she left a previous job.
Mr Philip Tan, another private detective, said marital checks are also done to ascertain that a candidate's spouse is not working for a rival company or running a business that may pose a conflict of interest to her husband's firm.
Firms that ask for such background checks run the gamut, from multinational companies to smaller local firms, in industries ranging from food to finance.
Still, many of these checks are commissioned by suspicious girlfriends and wives.
For example, private investigator Dennis Lee had a client in her 20s who suspected her boyfriend of two-timing her. The man spent weekdays with her, but, come the weekend, he could not be reached.
Mr Lee did an ROM check on the man, and found out that he was married.
Often, those with cheating spouses will pay for such checks to obtain the name of the third party's own spouse.
The aggrieved person often hopes that confronting the third-party's spouse will help to end the adulterous relationship, private investigators said.
And Singaporeans are not the only ones seeking such marital records.
Foreigners also ask for ROM checks to be done if they suspect that their husbands who are based in Singapore are having an affair or, worse, have married someone else here, said a divorce lawyer.
[email protected]
This article was first published in The Straits Times.
Fri, Jul 24, 2009
The Straits Times
Over 5,600 checks on marital records
by Theresa Tan
THOUSANDS of people check on marital records every year and half of them are not even thinking of tying the knot.
An average of 5,640 such checks were conducted each year in the past three years, a Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) spokesman told The Straits Times.
About half of these checks are done by individuals, presumably to find out if their prospective spouses, or even potential sons- or daughters-in-law, had been married before. The rest are by companies, said the MCYS spokesman.
And many of these firms could be private detective outfits, hired either by spouses or even potential employers, according to a check by The Straits Times.
In May, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan said his ministry was studying ways to make marital records more readily available. For example, MCYS is considering making public the maintenance payments by divorcees to their former families, in the light of rising divorce rates.
The minister said: 'The next spouse at least will know what sort of man she's marrying. She'll know whether he has discharged his responsibilities and realise that men don't change their spots, and make an informed decision before they proceed.'
Dr Balakrishnan added that he was looking at making online searches for marital records free.
Currently, people have to pay $35 to the Registry of Marriages (ROM) to check if someone has registered a marriage and who he or she is wed to.
Often, it is a suspicious spouse who hires a private investigator to check on a philandering partner, though some firms also engage private investigators to conduct background checks on potential candidates for top jobs.
Private investigator Lionel de Souza said the reason companies do these checks is people in high positions must have good moral standards 'so you can't have a Romeo there, as trade secrets can be revealed in moments of ecstasy'.
These background checks are usually on a candidate's character, whether the person has any vices, such as gambling, and why he or she left a previous job.
Mr Philip Tan, another private detective, said marital checks are also done to ascertain that a candidate's spouse is not working for a rival company or running a business that may pose a conflict of interest to her husband's firm.
Firms that ask for such background checks run the gamut, from multinational companies to smaller local firms, in industries ranging from food to finance.
Still, many of these checks are commissioned by suspicious girlfriends and wives.
For example, private investigator Dennis Lee had a client in her 20s who suspected her boyfriend of two-timing her. The man spent weekdays with her, but, come the weekend, he could not be reached.
Mr Lee did an ROM check on the man, and found out that he was married.
Often, those with cheating spouses will pay for such checks to obtain the name of the third party's own spouse.
The aggrieved person often hopes that confronting the third-party's spouse will help to end the adulterous relationship, private investigators said.
And Singaporeans are not the only ones seeking such marital records.
Foreigners also ask for ROM checks to be done if they suspect that their husbands who are based in Singapore are having an affair or, worse, have married someone else here, said a divorce lawyer.
[email protected]
This article was first published in The Straits Times.
