By Khushwant Singh
FOR $3,000, Ministry of Manpower officer M. Jayabalan promised
to help a businessman 'settle a case' of illegal deployment of
foreign workers - but did nothing.
The 42-year-old was jailed six months on Tuesday and ordered to
pay a penalty of $3,000 for accepting the illegal gratification in
November 2008. He was also jailed three months for possessing more
than 1,500 obscene films which were found in his house in a police
raid in January last year.
As the sentence was ordered to run concurrently, he would have
to serve six months in jail.
The district court heard that Jayabalan was a housing
enforcement officer in charge of inspecting dormitories of foreign
workers. When his friend Madavakhandam Panjanathan asked him in
October 2008 if he could help sole proprietor Khairul Shah A.
Abrahim in some MOM matters, he agreed to help.
The boss of Parvin Engineering and Services was then being
investigated for deploying three of its foreign workers in jobs
that contravened their work permits.
The $3,000 was paid through Madavakhandam on two occasions. As
Jayabalan was not involved in investigation work at all, he was
unable to influence the outcome of the case against Khairul Shah
and nothing was done.