Contracts have clauses to cover situations too risky for delivery: SingPost

All Singapore Post (SingPost) contracts with its customers include clauses to cover situations where it is too dangerous for SingPost to render its services, a spokesman for the company said.

- Kang Wan Chern

"All our contracts have a force majeure clause to cover situations where it is too dangerous to deliver, and customers are aware of these conditions," the spokesman said.

A force majeure clause provides a legal shield against liability for non-performance.

"In the event of unforeseen circumstances, the standard approach would be to work with our customers to identify suitable options or alternatives, not falsify a status update through manual inputs when no attempt at delivery was made."

SingPost was responding to queries from The Straits Times on whether it can manually change the delivery status codes to "delivery failure (DF)" for parcels bound for cities where the situation is too dangerous or expensive for delivery, without first attempting to deliver them.

The queries were sent after a Dec 31 official statement was released by SingPost's former group chief executive Vincent Phang and former group chief financial officer Vincent Yik in response to two Singapore Exchange (SGX) filings made by the board on Dec 29.

In these SGX filings, SingPost's board had provided a detailed account and timeline of the proceedings that led to Mr Phang's and Mr Yik's dismissal on Dec 21.