Sacked SingPost executives say their firing is 'without merits'

SINGAPORE: Two of the three Singapore Post (SingPost) senior executives who were sacked after a probe into a whistleblower's report have said that their termination was unfair and without merits.

In a statement sent to the media early on Monday (Dec 23), former group chief executive Vincent Phang and former group chief financial officer Vincent Yik said: "We disagree with and are disappointed at the decision of the board to terminate us from our roles at the company after years of dedicated and committed service. It is our position that the termination is without merits, and was also procedurally unfair."

They will "vigorously contest" their firing, "both on merits and on the grounds of procedural unfairness", they said.

The probe into the whistleblower's report had found "grossly negligent" behaviour in their handling of internal investigations.

However, Mr Phang and Mr Yik said that they had acted in accordance with the company's guidelines on such reports.

According to company policy, they said, an independent group internal audit (GIA) investigates all whistleblowing cases and they had "dutifully presented the case to GIA to investigate, providing it with the required space and latitude to conduct its investigation".

"The board has stated that we had failed to consider material facts in the case. The facts unfolded over time and the causative correlation and impact was not established immediately. We had responded to questions based on facts that were presented to us at the time while respecting the independent investigation that was ongoing. We acted immediately once the correlation and impact had been established," they said.

"We categorically reject any suggestion that we were grossly negligent, had behaved inappropriately or had sought to misrepresent facts at any point," they added.

"We have at all times during our tenure at SingPost acted in the best interests of the company and held ourselves to the highest standards of leadership and management, and will seek recourse against any allegations to the contrary."

Investors reacted negatively to the news of the terminations on Monday, with SingPost's share price falling by over 8 per cent to open trading at 51 cents, down sharply from Friday's close of 56 cents.

"FAILED TO PERFORM THEIR DUTIES"

SingPost had said in a Singapore Exchange filing on Sunday that it commenced investigations after the whistleblowing report about the group's non-regulated international e-commerce logistics parcel business was filed earlier this year.

The report alleged that there were manual entries of certain delivery status codes by SingPost's international business unit. These were for international transhipment parcels which the company had agreed to deliver under an agreement with one of its largest customers.

The manual entries were allegedly done without basis or supporting documentation and with the intention of avoiding contractual penalties under the agreement.

Following an investigation, disciplinary proceedings were brought against three managers who were directly involved in the matter. It was found they had committed serious breaches of the company's code of conduct, SingPost said.

The managers were found to have performed or approved manual "delivery failure" status codes for parcels, even though no delivery attempt had been made and without supporting documents.

They have also been sacked and a police report has been made against them, said SingPost.

A whistleblowing report on the same matter was also sent to the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore, said SingPost. 

SingPost said that three senior executives – Mr Phang, Mr Yik and Mr Li Yu, chief executive of the company’s international business unit – were found to be "grossly negligent" in relation to their handling of internal investigations into the whistleblowing reports and renewal of the related agreement. 

They also had "omitted to consider material facts that compromised their decision-making and/or failed to perform their duties responsibly and reliably".

In particular relation to the handling of the whistleblowing reports, SingPost said it was found that Mr Phang, Mr Yik and Mr Yu had "accorded undue weight" to the misrepresentations by representatives of the international business unit's operations team.

They did so without any independent substantiation or evidence, and had, in turn, made various serious misrepresentations to the audit committee, said SingPost. 

Given the seriousness of these lapses and findings, SingPost said its had board lost confidence and trust in the judgment of the three senior executives and in their ability to perform their duties towards promoting and protecting the interests of the company.

Disciplinary proceedings against Mr Phang, Mr Yik and Mr Yu concluded at the close of business on Friday. Their employment was terminated with immediate effect on Saturday.