IT WAS NOT ME!! (PART 1)

I am sure that we have heard many stories about miscarriages of justice happening throughout history. Many have become victims and made to pay for someone else’s crime. In some cases, it isn't until years after, when new evidence emerge or the actual culprit finally came forward, that the innocent person got released. Unfortunately, some of the punishment includes death, which is an irreversible punishment. 

Sad!

A few days ago, I met with a long time friend of mine, Heni, and she told me how she recently got into trouble in her office. She was accused of another person’s crime and almost got terminated for it. I am intrigued to share her story in my blog.

Here's what happened.

Heni tells her story......

First some background, Heni is a Supervisor in her company. She handles the day-to-day management of her team to ensure that operation runs as smooth as possible. There is also a Team Lead named Grace, who works along with her to manage the team. Heni manages the team management part of the operations, including staff productivity, performance, attendance, punctuality, improvement plans and welfare. And Grace, who was promoted from within the team, handles the technical processing of the operations as she is well-versed with it after having been a processing staff for a few years. Both Heni and Grace reports to an Operations Manager, Adam, who is the overall in charge and the person responsible for the entire operations.

Everything seems to be running smoothly until last October, when they were required to submit reports and technical details for their annual audit purposes. Shortly after, the auditors came back and confirmed that there has been fraud committed in one of the technical info submitted to them. An investigation quickly followed suit.

It turns out that Grace had earlier realized an error in the technical processing, where they have missed out in sending out a critical report. She knows that she might get in trouble for this because she is the person in charge for those reports. So, without referring to anyone, she quickly sent out the missed report and submitted it to the auditors, but not before omitting the time and date of that report as if to show that the report was actually sent out accordingly.

The auditors immediately picked up the discrepancy and knows that something was amiss. They immediately escalated this to the higher management. Adam, Heni and Grace were involved in the remedial process to address the fraud issue. At that point, Grace actually came clean and admitted to Adam and Heni over what she has done. 

Knowing that the offence was committed by Grace, Heni thought that there was no point denying it and she took the liberty of apologizing to the auditors and confirmed that the actual report was never sent. Heni explained the same findings to Adam and the higher management over what actually happened. That should be the end of it.

And so Heni thought.

A few months passed by and it was Heni's birthday again. She took one day leave to celebrate and she was back to work a day after with a jolly mood, obviously still enjoying her birthday. Knowing her, that birthday mood would normally last for several weeks.

But not this time.

When she came back from her birthday leave, she was immediately called to the HR office and was handed a Show Cause letter, which also served as a 2-week Suspension letter for her, with immediate effect.

She could not believe it!! Could this be a birthday prank??? She read the letter again and again.

No, this is no prank, this is for real!!

In the Show Cause letter, HR stated that they received a report from Adam the Operations Manager, that Heni has committed a misconduct by purposely omitting the time and date of a report to avoid being penalized for failing to sent to the report in the first place - she was accused of committing a fraud!!

Imagine her shock when reading this letter. Heni tried to make sense of what was happening. Adam was there when Grace admitted to them what she has done. And Heni was very sure that she had also personally informed Adam of what actually happened and what remedial actions they have taken. She could not understand why did Adam sent a different report to HR. Heni recounted to me her ordeal for being accused of someone else’s crime.

“Seriously, when I read the letter, I almost fainted....” said Heni.

“I found myself being charged with a crime I did not commit!!” she continued.

“The thing that didn't make sense to me was - the person who committed the offence has already admitted to what she has done and the person who reported me to HR also knew what actually happened. So, why am I being made the scapegoat??” she said, obviously stressed.

Heni said she actually struggled to pull herself together and had intended to just disappear from the company. But she managed to somehow find the strength to reply the letter and stay to fight. She denied all the charges against her. 

She explained in her reply what had actually happened, as detailed as possible. She told me that while writing that reply, her mind keeps playing the same questions again and again...

Why is this happening to me?

Why hasn’t Grace come forward?

How could Adam have reported her to HR knowing what actually happen?

“You know what?? Even the email evidence, on which Adam was copied in, clearly shows that it was Grace who submitted the fraudulent technical details!!” she claimed.

Tears started to flow from her eyes. She felt betrayed and abandoned. She felt angered and challenged. The next day, she handed her reply to HR with all the email evidences. Then she waited for their verdict.

She waited for almost 2 weeks – nothing!

On the last day of her suspension, HR summoned her to their office. But instead of releasing her from those false charges, Heni was issued with an extension of her suspension period, which will then lead to a Domestic Inquiry, DI (an internal company’s tribunal). In the DI, should she be found guilty of the offence, she will be terminated.

“I know that fraud is a serious offence Azmil, but IT WASN’T ME!!” she exclaimed.

The day finally came for the DI. Heni was nervous and contemplating whether it is worth for her to even fight this. It is clear that she was wrongly accused, but the company seemed insistent to still pin this on her. Her mind races to multiple scenarios of conspiracy theories. She finally decided to fight on as she believe that the truth will eventually prevail - she still has faith in God!

So, the DI begins. The charges were read to her in front of a 3-panel tribunal. And she, of course, pleaded ‘Not Guilty’.

Grace was called in as the first witness.

Heni was surprised of how different Grace behaved in that tribunal. Grace started to throw accusations to Heni as if she was an evil being. Grace claimed that Heni was a lazy and useless supervisor, who doesn’t know how to do her job. She also claimed that she had received many complaints about Heni from a lot of people. Grace personally feels that Heni don't deserve to be a supervisor in the first place.

Heni was really taken aback with all the accusations she heard from Grace. But she kept her cool and waited for her turn to question Grace. Her turn came and Heni grilled her. 

Finally, Grace admitted that she was the one who omitted the time and date of the said report and she did that entirely on her own accord.

"YES!!!" Heni shouted in her heart. 

She did not actually expect the tribunal to end very quickly, but that should be it. That was what Heni was waiting for!! Surely, she will be released now, since the actual criminal has already admitted. 

Weirdly, the tribunal continues. A few other witnesses were called in after Grace, but they were not focusing on who committed the crime anymore, but rather it became a Heni-bashing session. It went on until afternoon and they break for lunch.

What is the ending to Heni's story??

Read - PART II of 'IT WAS NOT ME!!'