Fired SingPost CEO, CFO to contest employment termination, say move ‘without merits and unfair’

SINGAPORE – The former chief executive and chief financial officer of Singapore Post, who were

both fired on Dec 21 over a whistle-blower’s report,

said the reasons provided for the termination of their employment are without substantive grounds and that the process leading to the move was not conducted fairly.

“It is our position that the termination is without merits and was also procedurally unfair,” former CEO Vincent Phang and former CFO Vincent Yik said in a joint statement sent to the media on Dec 23.

“We vigorously contest the termination of our employment, both on merits and on the grounds of procedural unfairness. We categorically reject any suggestion that we were grossly negligent, had behaved inappropriately or had sought to misrepresent facts at any point.”

The employment of Mr Phang, Mr Yik and a third official, Mr Li Yu, who was CEO of an international business unit at the company, was terminated with immediate effect on Dec 21 after investigations stemming from a whistle-blower’s report were concluded.

The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) told The Straits Times on Dec 23 that the e-commerce shipment data falsification case was raised to IMDA and SingPost in February by a whistle-blower, 10 months before SingPost disclosed the fact.

It added that regulated postal services in Singapore were unaffected as the matter concerned the delivery of international e-commerce parcels overseas.

The report alleged that the company manually updated the delivery status codes of certain parcels for one of its largest customers to “delivery failure”. However, investigations revealed that it did not attempt to deliver them. These entries were made without supporting documentation.

Internal investigations revealed that three managers in the business unit had committed serious breaches of the company’s code of conduct by manually updating the delivery status codes when no delivery attempt had been made.

SingPost said the customer for whom the parcels were being shipped has been informed, and a settlement agreement has been mutually agreed upon and paid. The contract with the customer has also been renewed.

SingPost did not name the customer or state the settlement amount. It also did not say what the contents of the parcels were, how much they were worth, and why they were not delivered.

When asked, SingPost said it was unable to provide further details “due to the confidentiality of our customer contract”.

The employment of the managers involved has been terminated, and a police report against them has been made.

The internal investigations also found that Mr Phang, Mr Yik and Mr Yu had accorded undue weight to the misrepresentations made by the employees of the business unit without any independent substantiation or evidence. The three were also found to be “grossly negligent” in their handling of internal investigations.

In terminating their employment, the board of directors noted that it had lost confidence and trust in the judgment of Mr Phang, Mr Yik and Mr Yu, and in their ability to perform their duties in promoting and protecting the interests of the company.  

When asked for further information on why the three officials were sacked, SingPost noted that it was unable to do so “in light of possible litigation”.

In their statement, Mr Phang and Mr 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.”

They said they had cooperated with the internal investigations. “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.”

Shares of SingPost closed at 50 cents on Dec 23, down 10.7 per cent, with over 90 million traded.