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SINGAPORE – A teacher accused of embezzling about $ 40,000 in funds belonging to students claimed in court that she had not kept records or counted the funds she had raised.
Maslinda Zainal, the suspended English department head (HOD) at Woodgrove Secondary School, said she had relied on teachers to count the money before handing it over for the purpose of purchasing learning materials for students.
Taking the stand on Tuesday (October 6), Maslinda, 46, who had been at Woodgrove High School for more than 10 years, told the court about the extent of her duties at the school as a HOD, under examination. from his lawyer Singa Retnam. .
She is challenging two charges of criminal breach of trust as a public official, allegedly committed between January 2016 and April 2017. The amount on the charge sheets amounted to $ 40,636.70.
Too busy to count money: Maslinda
The court heard that in addition to teaching assignments and walks to ensure classes were taught effectively, Maslinda was in charge of seven committees, including a publishing committee, marketing, a relay teaching team, and a committee to in charge of organizing a concert at Republic Polytechnic. At the national level, HOD also had oversight and logistics functions related to exams.
When asked if she was suggesting she was “overworked,” Maslinda replied that she had “many, many things to do.”
Despite her duties, in 2007, Maslinda participated with other teachers in reviewing student textbooks and later devised new teaching materials known as the “Excel package” for her students.
While the package was initially printed in-house, it was outsourced starting in 2013 and the cost was borne by students. The one who printed the package would put the prices on the book list, according to Maslinda.
Teachers would then collect funds from their students and hand it over to Maslinda for her to collect.
Maslinda testified that there were no guidelines on how money was collected from students or how it was given to him.
Teachers would store the backgrounds in envelopes, zip-lock bags, or plastic sheeting and place them in various places within Maslinda’s cubicle, such as her cabinet or her laptop drawer.
When Singa asked him why he had not counted the money he had given her, Maslinda said that he trusted the teachers and believed that they would do their best to count the money.
“I am overwhelmed with many things and counting the money for a class would take a long time (about 15 minutes), so I thought the teachers had counted the money, so I kept the money when they gave it to me.” she said.
He added that he had not kept any records of the monies he received because no one had told him to do so and there were no guidelines on the process.
There were no surplus money issues until April 2016 after Maslinda paid the bills presented to her at the end of the month. Then she realized that there were additional funds in a white box where she kept the students’ money.
Maslinda said she initially had no idea what to do with the money, as she did not know who had paid or how much she had raised.
Since before 2016, teachers would use their own money to pay for office supplies, Maslinda decided to use the excess money to buy office supplies.
Maslinda said: “Since I had extra money and this is student money, I thought if I bought office supplies (and) teaching resources, I was actually going to give it back to the students, so I used the money to buy office supplies and teaching, learning … I really didn’t know what to do with the money. ”
Maslinda was arrested in April 2017 and her workstation was searched by investigators from the Ministry of Education, who found various amounts of money in a black ring file, the white box and an evaluation book.
Investigators also found $ 11,000 in Maslinda’s purse.
“I told them that this money belongs to me, these are my salaries and the money that my husband has given me, they told me that it is okay not to accept this because it is yours,” said Maslinda.
At this point, Maslinda burst into tears remembering how she showed investigators the office supplies she had purchased. However, since she had no bills or receipts for the equipment, investigators told her that these were considered personal expenses, the teacher said.
After counting the money that was found, investigators allegedly told Maslinda that there was a discrepancy of around $ 34,000 and asked if Maslinda could make up the amount.
“I told him that I would pay the $ 34,000 because it was my mistake not to count the money and keep a record or save the receipt for bills or receipts for stationery, so I told him I would return it so that the school would not be responsible for any loss of money (and) so that my students do not suffer from my negligence, ”said Maslinda.
Maslinda paid the amount on May 17, 2017, after investigators allegedly told her they would treat her leniently if she cooperated with the investigations.
In this regard, Maslinda said: “They informed me that if I returned the money they would not charge me. I paid back the money in May, but they charged me in October. “
If convicted of breach of trust as a public official, a person can be imprisoned for life or up to 10 years, and can also be fined.
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