4 July 2008
Straits Times 
English
(c) 2008 Singapore Press Holdings Limited

I REFER to Tuesday's letter, 'Fatigue? Officer with music earphones, texting away' by Madam Teo Guat Im.

We thank Madam Teo for highlighting this incident. The Immigration & Checkpoints Authority takes a serious view of officers who do not discharge their duties in a professional manner.

We have looked into the matter and preliminary investigations show it was an auxiliary police officer from Aetos Security Management who was using his mobile phone while on duty.

Aetos officers are engaged to conduct physical checks on vehicles at the land checkpoints. The officer concerned has been relieved of his duty at Woodlands Checkpoint. Aetos is conducting a thorough investigation into the matter and will take appropriate disciplinary action against him.

We welcome Madam Teo to contact our senior customer relations executive, Mr Wee Yew Boon, on 6391-6340 for further clarification or to give us more information on this incident.

Eunice Chu (Ms) Deputy Director, Corporate Communications Division For Commissioner, Immigration & Checkpoints Authority


Fatigue? Officer with music earphones, texting away

1 July 2008
Straits Times
English
(c) 2008 Singapore Press Holdings Limited

[by]Teo Guat Im (Mdm) [/by]
I REFER to Dr Lim Boon Hee's letter last Thursday, 'Front-line staff fatigue?'

He advocated looking into intangibles such as work fatigue, work hours, impact of shift work and overwhelming workload. Well said, and I believe this will be covered by the internal audit that must surely be going on following Mas Selamat Kastari's escape.

However, I would like to recount a recent incident I witnessed at the Causeway immigration checkpoint on June 23, the same day the passport slip-up occurred at the Budget Terminal.

My husband and I were in our car in Lane 23 at about 1.25pm when we noticed the security officer who was supposed to be checking vehicles not only had earphones on, obviously listening to music or whatever, but was also busy texting away on his cellphone.

Needless to say, some cars got away without having their boots checked and those he did check were the ones whose drivers had stopped and opened their boot, without being told to do so. All this while, he was glued to his earphones and cellphone.

Had he worked unduly long hours before that? I don't think so because, before we noticed his behaviour, we saw some movements in his lane, after which two officers walked away. Perhaps he had just reported for duty.