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Chee's
travel application rejected only after conference is over
9
Jan 07
Hard as it may be to
believe, the Official Assignee's (OA) office actually turned down
Dr Chee Soon Juan's application to attend a conference overseas
only after the conference was over.
Dr Chee is charged
with attempting to leave the country without permission from the
OA's office to attend an international conference organised by
the World Movement for Democracy in Istanbul, Turkey in Apr
06.
A case of too many cooks?
Under
questioning from defence counsel, Mr Alfred Dodwell, witness Mr
Patrick Lim, Dr Chee's case officer, acknowledged that the letter
informing the SDP secretary-general that his application to
travel to Turkey was sent only on 14 Apr 06, two weeks after the
conference was held on 1 Apr 06.
Just as strange was Mr
Lim's admission that when Dr Chee was stopped at Changi Airport
on 1 Apr, the OA's office was "still considering" his
application to make the trip.
Apparently it did not occur
to the office that it would be infinitely more helpful if it
could make up its mind before the
conference took place.
Worse, the OA didn't see the
absurdity of charging Dr Chee for attempting to leave the country
without its permission when it only informed him that his
application was rejected after the conference.
If all
this sounds crazy, its only because the OA's office really is.
For example, a total of six officers were assigned to
handle Dr Chee's case: One to initiate contact with him, a second
to liaise with him to attend the briefing for new bankrupts,
another to fill in the forms, a fourth to consider his travel
applications, a manager to meet with him, and a sixth to
investigate about his travels. Two more were recently added to
the team. NASA would be proud of the division of
specialist-expertise.
And yet, the office couldn't do one
thing: Decide whether to let Dr Chee go to Turkey to attend the
conference and to inform him before, not after, the conference
date.
You don't have to know who your case officer is
but call him anyway
Then it got really weird. Mr
Dodwell asked if Dr Chee's case officer, Mr Patrick Lim, had
contacted Dr Chee to let him know who his case officer was, Mr
Lim said no but added: "If the bankrupt has questions, he
can contact the case officer."
Mr Dodwell tried
again: "So when did you inform Dr Chee that you were his
case officer?"
"I don't recall I informed him I
was his case officer," Mr Lim said.
"Is it not
your job to inform him?" Mr Dodwell
pressed.
"No."
"Wouldn't a bankrupt
have to know who his case officer is?"
"Not
necessarily."
Mr Dodwell bravely made another
attempt: "If a bankrupt wanted to deal with the OA's office,
who would he contact?"
"With the case
officer."
"So you don't think a bankrupt needs
to know who his case officer is?"
"He can call
up to find out."
The lawyer gave up.
Attention
everyone
Even its own officer admitted to the
ridiculousness of the OA's operations.
Dr Chee had
attended the initial briefing for bankrupts during which he was
asked to fill out a form. After going through and double-checking
it with the Senior Officer in attendance (and getting the
assurance that everything was in order), Dr Chee left the office
only to be told a couple of hours later that more information and
a last signature was needed.
Senior Officer, Ms Jasmine
Ang, was the one assigned to ask Dr Chee to return to the OA's
office the following morning to make the additions.
Lawyer
Dodwell took issue with this: "I put it to you that you were
extremely unreasonable to ask Dr Chee to come back the next day
at 10 am!"
"Yes," Ms Ang agreed.
At
least she was honest.
But of course special attention
must be paid to this particular bankrupt if only because one of
his creditors is none other than Mr Lee Kuan Yew.
How
else can you figure out this: A 58 year-old bankrupt made 173
trips out of Singapore over a six-month period before he was
caught (Lianhe Zaobao, 30 Dec 06).
Yet when Dr Chee made
his first application to travel, he was stopped and immediately
charged.
Hearing continues tomorrow at 9:30 am at
Subordinate Court 15.
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