SINGAPORE - SPH Media Trust (SMT) will benchmark its reporting of data against international standards, and will bring in an international press association to review its processes, said Minister for Communications and Information Josephine Teo on Thursday.

The World Association of News Publishers, or Wan-Ifra, made up of newspaper associations and news agencies around the world, will be commissioned by SMT for the task, and will look at how media metrics are measured, she added.

Such metrics include reach – how many people the content of a publication reaches – which gives an indication of performance.

Mrs Teo was fielding questions by MPs, who asked what the publicly funded media organisation is doing to address its inflation of circulation figures that came to light in January.

This was uncovered by an internal review of data between September 2020 and March 2022.

SMT, which publishes The Straits Times and other newspapers, then asked its audit and risk committee to conduct an investigation. The committee found that circulation numbers were overstated in August 2021 by an average of 82,600 copies a day. This accounted for around 10 per cent of the overall circulation of the media giant’s main titles.

Mrs Teo said SMT was working on improvements in three areas to fix underlying issues.

Besides the benchmarking of its reporting of data against international standards, it will work to improve internal controls, she added.

This includes tightening deal structure and pricing approval procedures, such as requirements for approvals at the appropriate levels; strengthening guidelines and checks for revenue and cost recognition; improving separation of duties among staff to ensure data accuracy and accountability; and commissioning external parties to review its governance, control and compliance measures, with the aim of embedding the enhancements into a new enterprise resource planning system.

SMT will also enhance its risk management practices and review its risk culture, said Mrs Teo.

The media company has said it would implement the measures immediately, and would provide regular status updates on a half-yearly basis, she added.

The review by SMT’s audit and risk committee, covering the September 2020 to March 2022 period, had found that offences could have been committed in the inflation of the circulation figures.

The numbers had been reported in a manner that was inconsistent with established standards, and there had also been improper accounting of revenue, said a report by the committee released on June 21.

Part of the overstatement had come about through a barter deal with another company, which was entered into for the sole purpose of inflating circulation numbers, the committee said.

SMT has filed a police report based on the committee’s recommendations.

Referring to these findings, Workers’ Party (WP) MP Louis Chua (Sengkang GRC) asked if the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority and Singapore Exchange would be carrying out their own investigations.

Mrs Teo said it was up to the organisations to decide if they wanted to take action.

WP MP Gerald Giam (Aljunied GRC) and Progress Singapore Party Non-Constituency MP Leong Mun Wai wanted to know if the police would take to task the other company involved in the barter deal, and the former management of the media giant. The inflation of numbers had happened before SMT was established through the restructuring of Singapore Press Holdings Limited (SPHL).

Mrs Teo said police investigations would have to take their course.

She noted that SMT’s audit and risk committee found that the accounting impact of the overstatement was not deemed to be material to the financial statements for the financial year ending August 2022 taken as a whole. For the financial year ending August 2021, there was approximately S$110,000 in understatement of profits.

She also pointed out that there was no evidence of the journalism and editorial departments having been involved.

On whether the misreported figures have been set right, Mrs Teo said in response to Ms Tin Pei Ling (MacPherson) that since SMT was formed in December 2021, it had reviewed the data it took over from SPHL and had rectified the inconsistencies found.

SMT’s accounts, since its first financial year ending August 2022, no longer have the inconsistencies, said Mrs Teo.

She added that any further actions to deal with the erroneous figures before SMT was formed are matters to be decided by the relevant parties involved, since the report has been made public.