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SINGAPORE: Singapore Post on Tuesday (Dec 24) said it was confident of its legal position after two former senior executives said they would contest their sacking and called their firing unfair.

The company on Saturday terminated the employment of its group chief executive officer Vincent Phang, group chief financial officer Vincent Yik and chief executive of the company’s international business unit Li Yu.

This came after a probe into a whistleblower’s report had found "grossly negligent" behaviour in their handling of internal investigations.

Mr Phang and Mr Yik said in a statement on Monday that they would "vigorously contest" their firing.

"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 added.

In response to CNA queries about this matter, a SingPost spokesperson said on Tuesday: “We are confident of our legal position and will address this at the appropriate time and forum if necessary.

"In light of possible litigation, we are unable to provide any further comment on this issue.�

When asked if Mr Phang and Mr Yik had started legal proceedings against the company, the spokesperson repeated that the company was unable to comment further "in light of possible litigation".

S&P Global Ratings said in a report on Tuesday that the sacking of the three top executives has cast uncertainty over the company's future.

"Given SingPost's record of frequent turnover in management, the latest departures increase the company's credit risks," it added.

"We will assess this management and governance issue as part of our resolution of a CreditWatch placement on our ratings on the company."

This comes weeks after SingPost announced that it intends to sell its Australia business.Ìý

INVESTIGATIONS

SingPost said the first whistleblowing report was received in January this year, with investigations taking place thereafter.Ìý

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.

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

Findings from the investigations by the group internal audit were made known as early as March and April.

An external law firm and forensics service provider were subsequently engaged to conduct further investigations, which concluded sometime in August.Ìý

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

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

The three managers have since been sacked and a police report was made against them.

"FAILED TO PERFORM THEIR DUTIES"

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

External professional advisers were engaged to review and assess the matter independently of management.Ìý

SingPost said that the three senior executives were found to be "grossly negligent" in relation to their handling of internal investigations into the whistleblowing reports and renewal of the related agreement.Ìý

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 Li had "accorded undue weight" to the misrepresentations by representatives from the international business unit operations.

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

Given the seriousness of these lapses and findings, SingPost said its 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.