Could SingPost’s Parcelgate scandal underscore the ‘better for cheaper’ race in e-commerce?

JUST days before Christmas, three Singapore Post (SingPost) executives got a rude shock when they were unceremoniously fired by the board for being “grossly negligent” in their handling of a whistle-blower report.

The three former key management executives – group chief executive Vincent Phang, group chief financial officer Vincent Yik, and chief executive of its international business unit Li Yu – were not directly involved in the allegations raised.

However, investigations revealed that three managers in SingPost’s international e-commerce logistics parcels business had manually updated or approved “delivery failure” (DF) status codes for parcels the group had agreed to deliver for one of its largest customers – without supporting documents or delivery attempts.