OVERTIME hours pile up and the number of unclaimed leave days is mounting among officers of the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA).
This is the result of their workload having ballooned in tandem with the ever-rising number of travellers who file past the land, sea and airport checkpoints to enter Singapore. Each day, 400,000 people, including Singaporeans, do so.
It does not help that about 600 ICA officers quit last year, twice as many as in 2003 - and finding replacements has been tough.
This is the picture that emerged from interviews with officers - from ICA's top brass to the rank-and-file - at Woodlands Checkpoint yesterday.
ICA Commissioner Eric Tan said the management was 'acutely aware that our officers on the ground are stretched'.
Steps have been taken, he added, to step up recruitment, augment manpower through alternative means, and use technology more widely.
The issue of over-stretched Home Team officers came up in Parliament last week, following the incident of a retiree passing through immigration controls with the wrong passport.
Of ICA's 3,800 officers, 85 per cent work in frontline positions. They screen passports, control traffic bottlenecks and perform security checks on vehicles and cargo (see box).
To critics who have complained that not all lanes at the checkpoints are opened during peak periods, an ICA spokesman said that while the agency strives to operate as many counters as it can, it has other backend operations - such as security and secondary checks - that also need hands on deck.
These demands for manpower have resulted in officers working overtime and even double shifts stretching up to 17 hours.
Corporal Frankie Chew, 28, said he has had to fill in for colleagues on medical leave, and only took two of his 14 days of annual leave last year.
He said: 'The job is not easy, too. Every day, I have to tolerate the noise, inhale exhaust fumes and keep cool even when motorists spout vulgarities. But I stay on as it is a challenge to me.'
It is no wonder he feels the strain: Last year, 143 million travellers crossed the air, land and sea checkpoints, 10 million more than in 2005.
Over that period, officer strength grew only by 200.
Checkpoint instructor Mohamed Maideen Mohamed Ismail, 38, said that years ago, two to three counters could be closed and the flow of travellers would still be cleared.
'Now, even though we open all, we still have to work overtime to clear the traffic. We really need to hire more people,' he said.
In the first five months of this year, officers at the land checkpoints clocked 15,000 to 16,000 hours of overtime a month. To maximise the number of people on duty, limits have been put on the number taking leave over long weekends.
And when an incident as major as the escape of Jemaah Islamiah detainee Mas Selamat Kastari happens, leave is frozen.
But even doing all this is not enough. Officers from other parts of the Home Team have to be marshalled.
Recruitment is not as easy as putting out an ad: Officers who are unhappy with the long work hours and sustained stress are less likely to persuade others to join the ICA.
And like the rest of the civil service, the organisation is also subject to government policies on headcount control.
The ICA bumped up its salaries in March to retain its officers, reward those who had borne extra responsibilities and attract new blood. It has also re-hired retired officers and engaged temporary staff to take on non-critical support duties.
Staff Sergeant Rino Miswari, 33, said: 'People think our job is just about stamping passports, but they don't know that our eyes are always moving, going out of the booths, checking their faces. It is tiring.'
80% in frontline jobs
WORKLOAD
A typical frontline officer, will, in the course of a seven-hour shift:
Process 700 passports;
Check 360 cars or motorcycles; and
Clear 40 cargo vehicles
Last year, the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA):
Cleared 143 million travellers passing through the air, land and sea checkpoints;
Checked 3.9 million consignments and containers;
Detected 37,800 cases of smuggling at the borders; and
Uncovered 2,280 cases of foreigners impersonating or using forged or tampered travel documents
MANPOWER
ICA has 3,800 officers manning the three land, three air, and seven sea checkpoints and 10 port checkpoints. The combined manpower for the land checkpoints is 1,260, or a third of the ICA's total staff strength.
Just over eight in 10 of ICA's employees hold frontline jobs such as in traffic control, the screening of passports and manning its service centres.
This article was first published in The Straits Times on July 29, 2008.
