ecoWise CEO flags concerns over group's management in open letter

ECOWISE Holdings chief executive Lee Thiam Seng has flagged more concerns aside from the board's disagreement over the release of the group's H1 2021 results.

In a letter seen by The Business Times, Mr Lee said he has had some concerns about the group's management under the day-to-day supervision of deputy chief executive Cao Shi Xuan.

These concerns were also shared by the two former independent directors - Hew Koon Chan and Tan Wei Shyan - who departed in May and had already flagged similar weaknesses in the course of the board evaluation conducted earlier this year.

Mr Lee has also claimed difficulties in obtaining information on the company's business and operations from the management team in the past year. He said that Mr Cao "has not been very forthcoming" when asked the same, and told the former not to approach the management team.

Mr Lee alleged that Mr Cao has not been forthcoming when the board asked for further information to evaluate potential transactions and legal matters.

That being said, Mr Lee has highlighted that he is not "making any allegation of wrongdoing relating to the management of the operations of the group at this stage".

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"However, there are sufficient concerns and questions about the governance and internal control of the group to require me, in the fulfilment of my fiduciary duties as a director, to ask the questions and seek information," he added.

Regarding the Sungei Kadut server room incident - in which Mr Lee and a group of personnel from IT firm Stone Forest had on June 15 forcefully entered the restricted server room - Mr Lee said Stone Forest is a specialist company that is affiliated with the company's auditors. He had engaged the company to "secure the premises and the computer equipment".

"There has been no loss or damage to the assets of the company. On the contrary, my actions were taken to secure the same," he added.

Mr Lee said he welcomes the Singapore Exchange Regulation's directives posted on Friday morning to appoint two new independent directors, commission an internal audit and an audit of ecoWise's H1 2021 results, as well as form a new auditing committee.

He has a 26 per cent stake in ecoWise and is one of its two founders. The Catalist-listed environmental solutions provider suspended the trading of its shares on June 18 following a trading halt called on June 15. The counter last traded at 7.8 Singapore cents on June 14.