Clarification on recent BT reports on the SMF

I REFER to The Business Times' (BT) articles "Douglas Foo steps down from SMF presidency" (Mar 8) and "SMF Leadership has planned to remove Board of Governors: Sources" (Mar 10).

The articles do not accurately reflect how the Singapore Manufacturing Federation (SMF) operates and SMF would like to provide clarifications, especially on matters relating to the council elections in 2021. In particular, the comments attributed to Sunny Koh:

"There are many unanswered questions," said Koh. "How many legal voters received the voting paper through SingPost registered mail, due to Covid-19 and working from home now; how many of those were returned; how many were considered spoiled votes - the numbers are not shared transparently."

The election process was held in clear compliance with the SMF constitution, supervised by an independent committee that was appointed by the outgoing council. With the Covid-19 pandemic, the SMF also took the added step of informing its members about the election stages to ensure that our members knew to expect the nomination and balloting papers.

The process of opening the ballot boxes and vote counting were recorded. The results and the number of spoilt votes were conveyed to the then-council and at the annual general meeting (AGM). Details of the election process are verifiable in the records of the council, and we would be happy to share the records with your reporter. The full account of the election process would clearly refute the comments reported in the BT articles - that the number of spoilt votes was not announced. What your article reported is therefore false and potentially will unfairly damage the SMF, the integrity of our election process, and the legitimacy of the current council.

On a separate but related note, for all resolutions passed at general meetings, the Federation has always engaged independent external scrutineers to carry out the vote count and certify the results of the votes.

As for Sunny Koh, the source whom BT quoted, we wish to share some information about his past record of interactions with the SMF. Koh has previously gone through a number of council elections. However, he was expelled from the Federation in 2018 and did not receive information about the 2021 council elections. Our current membership did.

Governance with checks and balances

We reiterate that, apart from operating in accordance with the law, the SMF constitution and past precedent practice, the SMF has a system of internal governance. Koh's expulsion from the SMF is itself a demonstration of the checks, balances and internal governance process of the SMF at work.

Koh was deputy president of the SMF council and chairman of the food-and-beverage industry group during the council term 2016-2018. However, Koh was the subject of an inquiry for alleged misconduct in 2018, including a failure to report related-party transactions.

The SMF ethics and corporate governance committee led a detailed inquiry process, which included the engagement of external auditors, and council deliberations on the matter. Koh also addressed the council in person before a vote was taken by the council to expel him under Article V, Section 4, paragraphs 1(a), 1(b) and 2 of the constitution in operation at the relevant time. This meant that at least two-thirds of the members present and at the council meeting had voted to expel Koh.

Misleading/inaccurate content

Overall, the way the articles was written present a misleading perception of matters. For example, it was stated that Koh left the SMF in 2018. In fact, he was expelled.

Also, the reporting that "the EGM was held virtually and the proxy vote was carried out through the filling up of proxy forms" is misleading. It does not state that the General Meeting processes were carried out in accordance with the Covid-19 (Temporary Measures) (Alternative Arrangements for Meetings for Registered Societies) Order 2020, which was passed under the Covid-19 (Temporary Measures) Act 2020.

The SMF can also share that the material AGM and extraordinary general meeting (EGM) resolution results had more than 80 per cent of the votes received voting in favour of the resolutions tabled. This shows that the members speaking anonymously represent only a small minority of the SMF.

READ MORE:

• SMF leadership had planned to remove Board of Governors: sources
• Douglas Foo steps down from SMF presidency