SingPost’s former execs say some shipments in whistle-blowing report linked to areas with conflict

SINGAPORE - Singapore Post’s former chief executive officer and chief financial officer have released a joint statement two days after the company on Dec 29 outlined further details and a timeline of the matter right up to their sacking.

Former group CEO Vincent Phang and former CFO Vincent Yik,

who were both fired on Dec 21

over a whistle-blowing report, said in the statement released on Dec 31 that the management was not part of the investigation after receiving the report, in line with the company’s whistle-blowing policy.

The two executives said they were asked for their views on March 11 and April 3, and that they responded based on the facts they had at the time.

Mr Phang and Mr Yik said in their statement: “Full facts came to light to us only after the external forensics team’s investigations established the causative correlation on April 27.

“A significant majority of the shipments in question were linked to destinations where there were known issues – such as conflict zones (for example, Israel).

“It was therefore important to establish the financial impact prior to communicating with the customer as well as determining any wrongdoing by junior staff members.”

They added that the management was briefed on the conclusive report and findings after the external forensics team’s investigations. The management agreed with and followed the board’s instructions, they said.

“A settlement with the customer was then concluded that did not have a material financial impact,” they said, adding that the details of their full responses were submitted to the board on Nov 22.

The CEO of the international business unit at the company, Mr Li Yu, was also fired.

SingPost first received the whistle-blowing report on Jan 17, and investigations conducted by SingPost’s internal auditors started that day.

A copy of the report was sent to the Infocomm Media Development Authority on Feb 28, although the matter had no impact on local postal and parcel deliveries.

In the timeline provided by SingPost, it noted that on March 11 and April 3, the audit committee met and discussed findings by the internal auditors.

External legal counsel was also engaged to review and advise on matters raised in the whistle-blowing report, as representations made by the management contradicted the investigation findings by the group internal audit.

On April 19, the audit committee engaged a forensics service provider to review and advise on matters raised in the report.

Investigations were related to people in Mr Yu’s international business unit manually keying in the “DF” (delivery failure) status code for a significant number of parcels that SingPost had agreed to deliver, which falsely indicated that delivery had been attempted but had failed.

SingPost was liable to pay contractual penalties for not meeting specified service level requirements and for false data entries.

SingPost said that the settlement amount, which is confidential, was deemed to have no material financial impact, and its contract with the customer was renewed in August.

But SingPost also had a second phase of investigations related to management’s conduct in the handling of investigations into the whistle-blowing report, as well as the renewal of the affected customer agreement in 2023.

The board said that although Mr Phang, Mr Yik and Mr Yu were provided with the reports and findings of the auditors, they nevertheless made misrepresentations to the audit committee concerning the whistle-blowers’ allegations.

These misrepresentations, made over three occasions from March 11 to April 3, contradicted the auditors’ reports and were without any independent evidence or substantiation, the board said. 

This led to the firing of the three executives, and SingPost’s official announcement on the Singapore Exchange on Dec 22.

On Dec 23, both Mr Phang and Mr Yik said they were contesting the termination of their employment, saying it was without merit and procedurally unfair.

They also rejected any suggestion that they were grossly negligent, had behaved inappropriately, or had sought to misrepresent facts at any point.

On Dec 24, the third fired executive, Mr Yu, said

he would also contest the termination of his employment

, the alleged reasons for the decision and the disciplinary proceedings.

He said he disagreed with the alleged reasons given and will robustly defend his position in the proper forum.

SingPost was trading at 53 cents, up nearly 2 per cent, at around noon on Dec 31.