Disappointment

It is just the 1st quarter of the year, but I am very disappointed with a friend of mine, whom I am not naming, as I am just keeping this friend as a hi & bye friend after she returns the money that she owes me. To think that my mum had asked me to go steady with her after meeting her a few times and thought that she was the one for me at first. It is fortunate that I did not pursue her further as I really could not tolerate her bad habits.

This was what she did, to my fellow IRAS volunteer friend, A after they were paired together for the IRAS Volunteer e-filing exercise at the same CC for the last two years. I was surprised that A, who is a very active volunteer & very keen on taxation after taking up the VES with us, was hesitating when the VES was open for registration in late Jan. I have tried to persuade her to sign up early, but to no avail. It was until last Saturday, that she decided to sign up. By then, it was already quite full, so she had to settle for another CC to volunteer.

The next day, I called A to find out the reasons for her delay in signing up. I was not surprised when she told me that she was disappointed that she was not nominated for an award last year, despite the fact that she turned up for about 5 sessions. I do know that different CC management staff have their different way of doing things, but I liked the way that the CC which I was at was doing. It was to nominate for all volunteers and let IRAS decide on the award winners which I thought was a fairer system as every volunteer contributed in a way or another.

It was the second part of A’s revelation that shook me. She said that our common friend had copied the particulars of the taxpayers that A served as her own. I was wondering why this person, whose tax knowledge is like half past six, and always clinging onto me for help was able to get outstanding volunteer award for the past 2 years. My mum was smart enough to guess ahead of me for this, and she finally understood why I decided not to pursue this lady.

With this stealing of credit, which is equal to a contravention of the Official Secrets Act that we signed, I really told her off via a text message. She denied that she had done it and pointed an accusing finger at A for being late and giving wrong information.

I had confidence in A was telling me the truth and our friend was lying big time. Therefore I decided to give A the opportunity to prove herself on the VES Facebook Page by asking her to help me to answer some of the questions raised. I hope with that, I can try to help her to get the award.

Sometimes, I wonder why do people want the reward so badly that they stooped so low to steal the credit of others and take it as theirs?