SINGAPORE, Feb 18 — Following last month’s incident in which a Malaysian teacher managed to drive through the Woodlands Checkpoint without proper clearance and remained in the country for several days, the authorities will now treat all checkpoint security breaches as high-level security threats and take all necessary steps to locate the intruders, Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean said yesterday.

He also told Parliament that the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) and police ground commanders who made a serious error of judgment in the incident had been redeployed to non-operational posts pending disciplinary action.

The supervising officers overseeing operations, who should have acted to rectify the situation, will also face disciplinary action, along with the officers involved in the incident.

On Jan 17, Nurul Ruhana Ishak, a 27-year-old school teacher from Kuala Lumpur, drove through the Woodlands Checkpoint without proper immigration clearance. She was arrested three days later when she trespassed the compound of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). She is currently in remand at the Institute of Mental Health and her case will be heard on Feb 26.

Describing her ability to enter Singapore without the proper clearance as a serious security breach, Teo, who is also the Home Affairs Minister, said the incident and subsequent actions taken until her arrest were not acceptable.

Teo outlined in detail the lapses made by an ICA officer and an Auxillary Police Officer (APO) at the Woodlands Checkpoint on Jan 17, as well as police officers who did not pursue the Malaysian driver when she appeared outside the Police Cantonment Complex three days later.

For instance, the ICA officer at the counter hesitated and consulted her colleague before sounding the alarm, two-and-a-half minutes after the driver had slipped past her — when she should have immediately triggered a lockdown, which would have stopped the car from leaving the checkpoint.

ICA and police ground commanders also did not follow the security protocol for situations where a vehicle makes an unauthorised exit from the checkpoint.

Instead of treating the incident as a breach of border security and issuing a high-priority alert to all ground personnel to continue looking for the car and driver, the commanders classified the incident as a less serious immigration offence.

At about 1.30pm on Jan 20 — about 45 minutes before the woman trespassed the MFA premises — police officers had encountered her, after she followed a taxi driver and the latter sought the police’s help. On the police’s advice, the taxi driver drove to a location outside the Police Cantonment Complex with the car continuing to follow him.

When police officers tried to speak to the driver of the Malaysia-registered car, she was unresponsive and then drove off. The police officers decided not to pursue her.

“The officers showed weak situational awareness and exercised poor judgment,” Teo said.

He also gave a detailed explanation of the remedial actions taken by the ICA and police to prevent such an incident from happening again.

Existing standard operating procedures will be “thoroughly reviewed” to ensure officers act faster and effectively to deal with such situations, he said.

Both agencies will also conduct more frequent drills and joint exercises at the land checkpoints.

The ICA will use more advanced technology and improve infrastructure design to reduce reliance on officers’ reaction, as well as enhance the overall security of the checkpoints.

Nominated Member of Parliament Eugene Tan asked whether the incident had “revealed systemic issues within the Home Team”, with the agencies failing to coordinate among themselves to locate the woman driver.

Teo replied that there was a serious error of judgment by the ground commanders — which was more serious than a case of negligence on the part of the ground officers.

That judgment error was “a major reason” for the subsequent inadequate response, which resulted in the vehicle and driver not being detected and arrested much earlier, he added.

In response to Punggol East MP Lee Li Lian, who asked whether there was enough manpower at the checkpoint, Teo noted that Woodlands Checkpoint is one of the world’s busiest land checkpoints, with more than 300,000 people and 130,000 vehicles passing through each day.

Since 2008, he said, manpower at the checkpoint had increased by 58 per cent, while the increase in travellers and vehicles were 26 per cent and 36 per cent, respectively. — Today