Woodgrove teacher told MOE officer students' over-collected funds used on books, stationery

SINGAPORE: When asked about S$40,000 in over-collected funds from students she had allegedly misappropriated, a teacher at Woodgrove Secondary School said she used it on assessment books, practice papers and coloured markers.

Maslinda Zainal, 44, claimed trial to two charges of criminal breach of trust over the alleged misappropriation of money collected from students for learning materials between January 2016 and April 2017. 

On Monday (Dec 10), Ministry of Education (MOE) investigation officer Lucy Lim took the witness stand for the prosecution and described to the court how she took a 10-page statement from Maslinda, who had been the head of department for English since 2006.

In answers to Ms Lim’s questions on Apr 7, 2017, Maslinda said there was usually a balance of more than S$2,000 from money collected from students at the end of the school year.

When asked what she did with this money, Maslinda said in her statement: “I used the remaining money to buy stationery such as coloured markers, foolscap papers, whiteboard markers, refills for whiteboard markers.”

These were used by the English department and by the students for group work, she said, and the teachers returned the stationery to Maslinda after they were done.

Maslinda said the students were not aware that the money had been used to pay for stationery, and she did not think she told the other teachers that the stationery had been bought with the students’ balance money.

“Do you still have the receipts for the stationery that you bought using the students’ money?” Ms Lim asked Maslinda on that day.

“I don’t think so,” she answered. “I usually discard them when I do spring-cleaning.”

When asked if she thought it was right to use students’ money to purchase stationery, Maslinda answered “no”.

“Why did you still do it?” Ms Lim asked.

“I thought it would be troublesome to return the money to the students and in exchange I just purchased stationery for use in classrooms and for projects,” she replied.

She added that she bought stationery such as colourful markers and foolscap paper which was at times given as prizes to students from the school bookshop or the Popular store.

The school’s general office stocked up on the usual colours red, green, blue and black, she said, and she had received feedback from students that they liked to use more colourful markers.

When Ms Lim asked Maslinda about the alleged discrepancy of about S$22,000 in funds in 2016, Maslinda answered: “I am tired of this investigation because I know that I am not going to win anyway. All the odds are against me. Let’s just say that I took the money but I do not have the money with me. I want to end this statement now.”

Accordingly, Ms Lim stopped taking her statement and she was handed over to the police, who had arrived.

ACCUSED KEPT MORE THAN S$10,000 IN HER HANDBAG: MOE OFFICER

Before Ms Lim took Maslinda’s written statement, she and her MOE colleague had an interview with her a few hours earlier, Ms Lim told the court.

“Between 11am and 12.15pm, we had an oral interview with Maslinda where she said yes, she had used the remainder of the students’ money to purchase assessment books and print additional practice papers for the students,” Ms Lim said. 

“When we asked her if she had any receipts for these, she said all her purchases were done over the phone, and she had thrown away all the invoices and receipts earlier in the year.”

This was for the year 2016 - Maslinda explained that she had not bought any assessment books or printed additional practice papers for 2017 yet, and that the balance of the money collected for the year 2017 was in a box at her work station.

They then headed to Maslinda’s cubicle to inspect her belongings. They found cash of about S$5,330 inside a box, which was the leftover money collected from students for 2017.

Ms Lim also found the following inside Maslinda’s handbag: Cash of about S$4,500 in her wallet, S$6,085 in cash in an envelope marked Woodgrove Secondary School and cash of S$870 loosely stuffed in the bag.

The S$6,085 was her performance bonus, she said, while the S$870 was from the S$1,000 allowance her husband gave her.

The MOE investigators also found cash of S$630 in another envelope in a clear folder, along with a class list.

Maslinda's defence lawyer Singa Retnam in his cross-examination of Ms Lim put it to her that Maslinda had told her the truth but Ms Lim "refused to accept whatever explanation she gave" to her.

The trial resumes on Dec 21.