MOM Officer Gets 9 Months' Jail

This article was published in The New Paper on 14 January, 2009.

Gone: Two years of her pay
By Benson Ang

THE $4,250 she earned in about two years was misappropriated by a Ministry of Manpower (MOM) officer in 2005.

Indonesian domestic worker Sugiati, 30, has still not got her money back.

Two months ago the officer, Jeffrey Lee Chee Keong, 37, was sentenced to nine months in jail for committing a criminal breach of trust by a public servant.

If he fails to make the repayment, MOM said it will explore alternative ways to help Miss Sugiati.

Miss Sugiati's story began when she came to Singapore in 2003.

She worked for a family in Bedok for two years. During that time, her employer held on to her salary with her permission.

It came up to $4,250 by 2005.

That year, however, her employer inadvertently failed to renew her work permit.

So she was moved from her employer's home.

Her employer told The New Paper that when the time came for them to pay Miss Sugiati's salary, 'Mr Lee arranged for us to pass the money to her in his presence'.

'But when we met him , Sugiati wasn't there, and Mr Lee told us to give the money to him so that he could pass it to her,' said the employer, who declined to be named.

So she gave the money to Lee, the employer added.

In April that year, Miss Sugiati was issued a special pass so that she could continue staying in Singapore despite not having a work permit.

According to Miss Sugiati, the only time she saw Lee was when he interviewed her to apply for the special pass.

Miss Sugiati said: 'I thought he was supposed to help me.'

She was later returned to her agency.

In 2006, Miss Sugiati was sent to work with a family in Bukit Panjang, mainly to take care of an elderly woman.

When the elderly woman died in 2007, Miss Sugiati told her agency she did not want to work in Singapore anymore.

She was then sent to a women's shelter run by the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (Home), a registered charity that helps migrant workers.

Miss Sugiati has been staying there for the last two years waiting for her money so she can return home.

She said her family in Indonesia was angry and unhappy because she was unable to send money home for the past two years.

Miss Sugiati's father, a rice farmer, is in his 60s and her mother is a housewife. They live in East Java and she has not seen them for five years.

Miss Sugiati's case has been closed and she is due to return to Indonesia soon.

Small token

Home has given Miss Sugiati $500 in cash from their newly launched Peace and Justice Fund, so that she will not go home empty-handed.

When we asked Miss Sugiati how she felt about receiving the money she said: 'It's good to have some money.'

So, what is she going to do when she gets home?

'I don't know yet,' she replied.

Her first employer, who has already paid for her ticket home, said: 'Sugiati was a very good, patient, humble, tolerant girl.

'If anybody employs her as a domestic helper, they will never regret it.'