SINGAPORE: Singapore Post works with its customers to identify suitable options or alternatives, when "unforeseen circumstances" mean deliveries cannot be made.

That is the company's general approach, instead of resorting to false manual "delivery failure" data entries when no attempt at delivery was made, a spokesman for the national post carrier told CNA on Thursday (Jan 2). 

"All our contracts have a force majeure clause to cover situations where it is too dangerous to deliver, and customers are aware of these conditions," SingPost said.

"In the event of unforeseen circumstances, the standard approach would be to work with our customers to identify suitable options or alternatives, not falsify a status update through manual inputs when no attempt at delivery was made."

SingPost's force majeure clause, as outlined in its general terms and conditions, states that the company "shall not be liable for any loss or damage" arising from its failure or delay to perform its obligations under agreements with customers, if the failure or delay is the result of "any circumstances outside its reasonable control".

This includes the outbreak of or any act of hostility, weather conditions, or any other circumstances affecting the supply of goods and services.

"SIGNIFICANT" MAJORITY OF KNOWN SHIPMENTS LINKED TO DESTINATIONS WITH KNOWN ISSUES, SAY SACKED EXECUTIVES

SingPost announced on Dec 22 the sackings of group CEO Vincent Phang, group chief financial officer (CFO) Vincent Yik and the chief executive of the company's international business unit Li Yu over their mishandling of the whistleblowing report.

A whistleblowing report was filed earlier this year about SingPost's international e-commerce logistics parcel business, alleging there were manual entries of certain delivery status codes 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.

Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), Singapore's postal regulator, also received a whistleblowing report on the same issue. 

An independent review found that the three senior SingPost executives were “grossly negligent” in their handling of the internal investigations into the whistleblowing reports and the renewal of the related agreement. 

They also "omitted to consider material facts that compromised their decision-making and/or failed to perform their duties responsibly and reliably", the company said in a Singapore Exchange (SGX) bourse filing. 

In their handling of the whistleblowing report, the three executives “accorded undue weight” to the misrepresentations by some staff in the international business unit operations. 

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

The three top executives were found to have failed to exercise due diligence and breached their duties to the company. 

SingPost said its board lost confidence and trust in the judgment of the three executives and their ability to perform their duties, given the seriousness of these lapses. 

Disciplinary proceedings against the trio concluded at the close of business on Dec 20, and their employment was terminated with immediate effect the next day.

"The termination of senior management was a carefully considered decision by the board, based on established facts and supported by legal advice, including a second independent opinion from senior counsel of another law firm," chairman Simon Israel said in a SGX filing on Dec 29.

SingPost said the three top executives made false assertions which included:

• That there was no evidence of data manipulation and wrongdoing in relation to the manual DF data entries
• There was no evidence of falsification to avoid penalties
• The practice of manual DF data entries was requested by the customer
• The customer was fully aware of the assumptions of the manual DF data entries and such practice is said to be in line with industry practice

In their latest statement on Dec 31, Mr Phang and Mr Yik said a "significant majority" of the shipments in question were linked to destinations where there were known issues, such as conflict zones like Israel.

Both men said they were unaware not aware of the full facts of the matter when asked for their views on Mar 11 and Apr 3, and "responded accordingly based on the facts that were provided to us at that time".

They added they were made aware of the "full facts" only after the external forensics team’s investigations established the causative correlation on Apr 27.

"Once the management was briefed on the conclusive report and findings following the external forensic team’s investigations, we agreed with and followed the instructions of the board."

All three senior executives have said they would contest their sackings, calling the decision "without merits".

MANUAL "DELIVERY FAILURE" STATUS CODES

SingPost’s group internal audit, under its audit committee, launched an internal investigation after receiving the whistleblowing report. 

After the investigation, three unidentified managers who were directly involved in the case underwent disciplinary proceedings, and they were found to have committed serious breaches of the company’s code of conduct. 

They had performed or approved manual "delivery failure" status codes for parcels, even though no delivery attempt had been made and without supporting documents, said SingPost. 

The three managers were sacked in June and a police report has since been made against them.