SINGAPORE: Three lapses in the SAF’s systems and procedures have been identified concerning the recent incident where a full—time national serviceman walked out of Mandai Hill Camp with his rifle and ammunition during his guard duty, said Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean.
20—year—old full—time national serviceman Corporal Dave Teo, who was serving as an infantryman in the First Battalion, Singapore Infantry Regiment (1 SIR) has been charged with illegally carrying a firearm after escaping from his camp on the night of 2 September and was caught at Cineleisure on Orchard Road after a 20—hour manhunt.
Speaking in Parliament on Monday, Minister Teo said the SAF had convened a Higher Board of Inquiry (HBOI) to determine how the incident took place and while it reviewed that the SAF’s current systems are sound, they rely on people for effective implementation.
In this case, the first weakness the HBOI identified was the implementation and supervision of guard room procedures at Mandai Hill Camp on that night when Corporal Teo slipped out.
It also revealed that there was a flaw in the physical construction of Mandai Hill Camp that enabled him to escape without being detected.
The third lapse was the mismanagement of the post—incident reporting procedures, which require quick reporting of all serious incidents including missing arms and ammunition.
On 2 September, Corporal Teo was assigned patrolling duty and its procedures require it to be conducted on two—hour shifts and in pairs.
Guards on patrol duties are also required to make situational reporting to the guard room at half—hour intervals but these were not enforced properly or Corporal Teo’s absence would have been detected earlier.
The camp’s physical security is also in question as it has been designed to prevent unauthorized entry and not unauthorized exit.
Investigations showed that Corporal Teo did not leave by the camp gates but absconded by jumping the far corner of the second—floor parapet of the Guard Room onto the carpark outside the camp premises, which was out of the visual scope of the other guards. Before doing so, he dismantled his rifle and concealed it in his field pack.
This incident has also brought to light a significant breach of reporting standards.
For serious security incidents such as those involving missing arms and ammunition, the unit’s Duty Operations Officer is required to report the incident to the Army’s General Staff Operations Centre within 30 minutes.
However, in this case, Corporal Teo, together with his firearm and ammunition, was discovered missing by the Guard Commander at 11.59pm on 2 September, but the Army’s General Staff Operations Centre was only informed of this incident at 3am the next day.
The Military Police were alerted at 3.30am and when their preliminary investigations showed that the missing firearm and ammunition were no longer on the camp premises, the Police were contacted at 5.45am.
When Corporal Teo was arrested, his firearms and eight rounds of ammunition were recovered. All five rounds of 5.56 ammunition which were issued to him for guard duty on 2 September were retrieved.
However, investigations revealed that additional three 5.56 millimetre tracer rounds were used during a section live firing exercise that he participated in two weeks earlier. The police and the SAF are still investigating exactly how he acquired those three tracer rounds.
Minister Teo stressed that concrete action by MINDEF and the SAF have been taken to rectify the three lapses.
He added that following this incident, the SAF has audited and reviewed the camp guard security of all SAF camps to determine if such non—compliance of orders or procedures exists in other camps.
However, Mr Teo said that the audit revealed that this was a problem localised to this unit.
Nonetheless, the SAF has stepped up the frequency of security audits of all SAF camps and will continue to focus on effective training and supervision to ensure that servicemen at all levels know the procedures and how to implement them.
Personnel found to have been negligent in their conduct of duties in this case will also be punished.
During an interview with his Platoon Commander in June this year, Corporal Teo admitted that he was stressed over relationship problems with his girlfriend.
The criminal case against Corporal Teo is pending.
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