Raffles Consulting Services
Control the WDG(JR+) nett-fee model through project scope, milestone acceptance, consultant evidence and company outcomes.
The WDG(JR+) nett-fee model reduces the company’s upfront payment, but it does not transfer responsibility for project acceptance to SBF or the consultant. SBF says the company pays its co-funding portion and the government grant is paid directly to the consultant after milestone completion. The employer still needs to verify that each milestone is real, complete and useful.
Build the WDG(JR+) nett fee into the contract
Identify whether the project uses workforce consultancy, capability building, workforce technology or an allowed bundle. State the full project fee, qualifying scope, expected support, company co-funding and any unsupported items. The contract should explain payment flows without describing a forecast grant as an unconditional debt owed by government.
The current SBF WDG(JR+) page describes support of up to 70% for SMEs and 50% for non-SMEs, the S$150,000 company cap and direct payment after milestone completion. The EWTP factsheet gives the programme context. Check the latest application documents and approval because actual support depends on assessment.
Define evidence for each milestone
Turn broad labels such as discovery, redesign, training or deployment into observable outputs. For each milestone, specify deliverables, participants, source data, review criteria, due date and authorised acceptor. Link the consultant’s work to changed roles, processes, capabilities or technology use. Attendance or a slide deck alone may not prove the intended workforce outcome.
Set a review window and a process for incomplete or disputed work. The company should be able to reject, conditionally accept or request correction before certifying completion. Keep meeting decisions, test results and revised versions. A direct grant payment should follow evidence-based acceptance, not replace it.
Protect the company when facts change
Record changes in staff, job scope, technology, consultant team, timing and cost. Test whether the approved outcome and funding bucket remain valid. Obtain any required SBF or programme approval before treating a changed milestone as supportable. Keep the original baseline so the project can show what improved.
At closeout, reconcile the full fee, company payment, consultant invoice, accepted milestones and direct grant amount. Confirm no duplicate support covers the same cost. Continue measuring whether redesigned jobs and capabilities remain in use. The final file should let finance, HR and operations reach the same conclusion from the same evidence.
Turn the decision into a controlled file
Use a dated decision record that identifies the applicant, business need, current official source, chosen route, responsible owner, costs, milestones and evidence. Separate facts already verified from forecasts and assumptions. A catalogue listing, supplier statement, consultant recommendation or portal acknowledgement does not establish approval. The company remains responsible for its declarations and commercial decision.
Give each quotation, contract, invoice, payment and deliverable a stable reference. Preserve earlier versions and explain material changes instead of silently replacing them. Where the authority, tax adviser, auditor or another professional must decide a point, record the open question and obtain the required view. Do not convert uncertainty into a confident eligibility statement.
Review before commitment and again before closeout
Run four reviews: suitability, authority, implementation and closeout. At suitability, test the entity, activity and business outcome. Before commitment, freeze the proposed scope, vendor and financial assumptions. During implementation, compare actual work with approved terms. At closeout, reconcile deliverables, accepted results, invoices, full payment, operating evidence and obligations that continue.
Name the person who may approve each stage and the records that person must see. Procurement should not treat a draft application as permission to contract. A project team should not treat supplier completion as company acceptance. Finance should not treat a submitted claim as cash received. Clear status words prevent accidental commitments and weak reporting.
Handle exceptions without rewriting history
Maintain an exception log for changed facts, delayed milestones, supplier variations, cost movements, missing records and failed tests. State the effect on scope, eligibility, timing and expected value. If an authority decision or formal variation is required, use the published route before relying on the change. Silence and helpdesk receipt are not approval.
If a material defect appears, pause the affected acceptance, filing or claim item. Keep original evidence, assign corrective action and set a review date. Do not backdate records, move costs between categories or adjust a baseline after seeing the result. A candid exception with an owned resolution is more credible than a clean-looking file that cannot explain what happened.
Plan handovers before the original project team disperses. The handover should identify the current version, source locations, system access owner, next review date, open exceptions and any condition that continues after payment or filing. Restrict personal, financial and commercially sensitive records to authorised users, while giving each responsible owner enough information to perform the assigned control. Record the external event that should trigger an earlier review, such as a changed programme page, revised authority letter, supplier failure or material business change.
Verify the final outcome independently
Ask someone who did not prepare the final pack to compare the decision, current official source, approved terms, deliverables, payments and operating evidence. Recalculate totals and sample source records. The reviewer should be able to reproduce the conclusion without relying on the preparer’s memory. Record unresolved points with named owners and dates.
Use the workforce transformation partner guide for the wider decision and keep this article as the narrower operating guide. After submission, preserve the receipt and reconcile questions, adjustments and the final registered or paid outcome. Continue any reporting, retention, asset-use or other condition that survives closeout.
Practical review checklist
- Funding bucket confirmed
- Full and nett fees separated
- Milestone evidence defined
- Acceptance authority assigned
- Final payments and outcomes reconciled
A WDG(JR+) nett-fee project is controlled when the employer knows the full economics, accepts measurable milestones independently, records changes and reconciles company and government payments to actual workforce outcomes.