Singapore Post (SingPost) has dismissed three senior executives following the conclusion of an investigation sparked by a whistleblower’s report earlier this year.
The group chief executive officer, Vincent Phang, group chief financial officer, Vincent Yik, and the chief executive of the international business unit (IBU), Li Yu, were terminated effective 21 December 2024.
The decision, announced in a 22 December bourse filing, stems from findings of gross negligence and breaches of duty.
Phang, who was also asked to step down from the SingPost board and related companies, is being replaced in the interim while the company searches for a new group CEO.
Isaac Mah, the current CFO of the Australian division Freight Management Holdings (FMH), has been appointed as the new group CFO.
No immediate replacement has been announced for Li, but the IBU will be led by an acting CEO pending further review.
Chairman Simon Israel has pledged to oversee senior management more closely, providing increased guidance in the aftermath of the scandal.
Lest you’re not aware, board members, led by its chairman, are responsible for selecting the CEO of a company. Simply put, CEO is, technically, not the highest key officer in a company; it’s usually the chairman and the board members.
So, what happened?
The Whistleblowing Report That Started It All
The controversy began earlier in 2024, when SingPost received a whistleblowing report alleging irregularities in its non-regulated international e-commerce logistics business.
According to SingPost’s investigation, three managers in the IBU (not the three people mentioned earlier) performed unauthorized manual updates to delivery status codes for one of the company’s largest customers.
The updates were reportedly made without supporting documentation and outside the standard processes, potentially to avoid contractual penalties for delivery failures.
Although these managers were terminated and a police report was filed against them, the company expanded its inquiry to include the senior executives overseeing the matter.
That was when the three high-ranking officers mentioned in the beginning of the article were involved.
The external legal review found that Phang, Yik, and Li were grossly negligent, failed to consider critical facts, and made misrepresentations to the audit committee overseeing internal controls and compliance.
The board expressed a loss of confidence in the trio’s ability to safeguard SingPost’s interests, stating, “Given the seriousness of these lapses and findings, the board has lost confidence and trust in their judgment.”
Phang and Yik, through their solicitors (i.e. lawyers), have contested the terminations, claiming procedural unfairness and maintaining that they acted responsibly based on the information available at the time.
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