PART VI
TRANSFER OF PROPERTY, ASSETS, LIABILITIES AND EMPLOYEES
21.
—(1) As from 1st April 2001, such movable and immovable property vested in the Government as may be determined by the Minister for Finance and used or managed by the Government department known as the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore or the Copyright Tribunal, and all assets, interests, rights, privileges, liabilities and obligations of the Government relating to that department and the Copyright Tribunal shall be transferred to and shall vest in the Office without further assurance, act or deed.
(2) If any question arises as to whether any particular property, asset, interest, right, privilege, liability or obligation has been transferred to or vested in the Office under subsection (1), a certificate under the hand of the Minister for Finance shall be conclusive evidence that the property, asset, interest, right, privilege, liability or obligation was or was not so transferred or vested.
(3) Any immovable property to be transferred to and vested in the Office under subsection (1) shall be held by the Office upon such tenure and subject to such terms and conditions as the President may determine.
22.
—(1) As from 1st April 2001, such persons or categories of persons as the Minister may determine who, immediately before that date, were employed by the Government in the Government department known as the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore or the Copyright Tribunal shall be transferred to the service of the Office on terms no less favourable than those enjoyed by them immediately prior to their transfer.
(2) If any question arises as to whether any person or any category of persons has been transferred to the service of the Office under subsection (1), a certificate under the hand of the Minister shall be conclusive evidence that the person or category of persons was or was not so transferred.
(3) Until such time as terms and conditions of service are drawn up by the Office, the scheme and terms and conditions of service in the Government shall continue to apply to every person transferred to the service of the Office under subsection (1) as if he were still in the service of the Government.
(4) Notwithstanding the provisions of the Pensions Act (Cap. 225), no person who is transferred to the service of the Office under this section shall be entitled to claim any benefit under that Act on the ground that he has been retired from the public service on account of abolition or reorganisation of office in consequence of the incorporation of the Office.
23.
—(1) The terms and conditions to be drawn up by the Office shall take into account the salaries and terms and conditions of service, including any accrued rights to leave, enjoyed by the persons transferred to the service of the Office under section 22 while in the employment of the Government.
(2) Any term or condition relating to the length of service with the Office shall provide for the recognition of service under the Government by the persons transferred under section 22 to be service by them under the Office.
(3) Nothing in the terms and conditions of service to be drawn up by the Office shall adversely affect the conditions that would have been applicable to persons transferred to the service of the Office as regards any pension, gratuity or allowance payable under the Pensions Act.
(4) Where a person has been transferred to the service of the Office under section 22, the Government shall be liable to pay to the Office such portion of any pension, gratuity or allowance payable to the person on his retirement as the same shall bear to the proportion which the aggregate amount of his pensionable emoluments during his service with the Government bears to the aggregate amount of his pensionable emoluments during his service under both the Government and the Office.
(5) Where any person in the service of the Office, whose case does not fall within the scope of any pension or other scheme established under this section, retires or dies in the service of the Office or is discharged from such service, the Office may grant to him or to such other person or persons wholly or partly dependent on him, as the Office thinks fit, such allowance or gratuity as the Office may determine.
24. All deeds, bonds, agreements, instruments and arrangements subsisting immediately before 1st April 2001 to which the Government is a party and relating to the Government department known as the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore or to the Copyright Tribunal or to any person transferred to the service of the Office under section 22 shall continue in force on or after that date and shall be enforceable by or against the Office as if the Office had been named therein or had been a party thereto instead of the Government.
25. Any proceedings or cause of action relating to the portion of the property, assets, interests, rights, privileges, liabilities and obligations transferred to the Office under section 21 or to any person transferred to the service of the Office under section 22 pending or existing immediately before 1st April 2001 by or against the Government, or any person acting on its behalf, may be continued and shall be enforced by or against the Office.
26.
—(1) Where on 1st April 2001 any disciplinary proceedings were pending against any person transferred to the service of the Office under section 22, the proceedings shall be carried on and completed by the Office.
(2) Where on 1st April 2001 any matter was in the course of being heard or investigated or had been heard or investigated by a committee acting under due authority but no order, ruling or decision had been made thereon, the committee shall complete the hearing or investigation and shall make such order, ruling or direction as it could have made under the authority vested in it before that date.
(3) Any order, ruling or direction made by a committee pursuant to this section shall be treated as an order, a ruling or a direction of the Office and have the same force or effect as if it had been made by the Office pursuant to the authority vested in the Office under this Act.
27. The Office may reprimand, reduce in rank, retire, dismiss or punish in some other manner a person transferred to the service of the Office under section 22 for any misconduct or neglect of duty, committed prior to 1st April 2001 whilst he was in the employment of the Government which would have rendered him liable to be reprimanded, reduced in rank, retired, dismissed or punished in some other manner if he had continued to be in the employment of the Government and if this Act had not been enacted.