SINGAPORE (July 4): Singapore Post needs to make significant improvement in building a robust pipeline of future leaders. That was one of the major findings made by the consultants of the Corporate Governance Review that was released on Monday.

In response, SingPost's Board says it will move this responsibility from the Nominations and Corporate Governance Committee to the Compensation Committee, which will have deeper knowledge of key talent in the organisation as a result of its role in reviewing their performance and development plans.

SingPost’s Board has also accepted the findings and adopted all of the recommendations of both the Special Audit and the Review, with one exception: a recommendation to deem all directors with more than nine years’ tenure as non-independent was found to be no longer relevant in view of the recently introduced Board Renewal and Tenure Policy setting the maximum tenure of a director at nine years.

The Review also made recommendations for management succession, conflicts of interest and disclosures, and processes for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and market disclosures.

Among them, the Review found that SingPost has written guidelines on evaluating and approving M&A transactions. However, the guidelines are not consistent with each other and are not consistently understood.

“Many of the guidelines are implemented based on the commercial experience of those working on each M&A transaction, with varying interpretations and applications of the principles and guidelines,” the Review found.

Nonetheless, the review consultants did not encounter evidence to suggest any non-compliance with SGX listing rules.

The Review also found that procedures relating to market disclosures and Singapore Exchange announcements and responsibilities of those involved in the process were not properly documented, consistent with findings of the special audit.

Again, the Review consultants did not encounter evidence to suggest any non-compliance with SGX listing rules.

To address this, SingPost’s Board will be adopting a disclosure policy that lays out detailed processes and a clear delegation of responsibilities in the drafting, preparation, approval and release of SGX announcements.

Meanwhile, the Review advised that the Board continues to play an active role in contributing to strategy but called for clearer delineation between the role of the Board in contributing to the strategy in partnership with management and the role of the SingPost management team in executing the strategy.

Singpost shares closed 2.34% higher at S$1.53.