MARKETPLACE AND CUSTOMERS
FAIR MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
DMAWe recognise that adopting fair marketing practices and transparency in the way we communicate can contribute to building trust and loyalty among our customers and develop positive word-of-mouth.
We have installed interactive screens in our retail stores to keep customers informed of the latest deals and promotions across Singapore and Australia. This also helps us with our efforts to reduce in-store paper brochures. Customers are alerted to the many complimentary Value-Added Services (VAS) when they sign a new contract with us. We send them SMS reminders before the promotion is about to end with an option to subscribe to or cancel the VAS.
We strive to ensure that our advertising and promotional materials comply with Singapore advertising guidelines and the Australian regulations. Our people in Australia undertake online compliance training annually and those who deal directly with our competitors have additional training on anti-competitive conduct.
In March 2015, we discovered that an agency and our staff had run a negative online media campaign against our competitors in Singapore. We immediately acknowledged the incident and issued an apology. We ceased working with the agency and the staff member involved is no longer with the company.PR7
We implemented measures to ensure that our staff and business partners understand and adhere to the high standards of professional values and integrity in the way we conduct our business. Our marketing policy is to focus on the strengths and differentiators in our products and services, and not to criticise our competitors.
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND ETHICS
G4-56Corporate governance, transparency and business ethics are at the core of the Singtel Group. We continue to receive recognition and accolades for our commitment and performance in these areas. For example, our sustainability efforts have been recognised through the inclusion of Singtel in the Dow Jones Sustainability Australia Index 2014 and the 2015 World’s Most Ethical Companies ranking by Ethisphere Institute.
Our Audit Committee provides Board-level oversight of the adequacy and effectiveness of our fraud risk management framework, policy and process, including review of significant investigations into incidents of alleged fraud and corruption and whistleblower complaints.
We ensure that the Group’s zero tolerance policy towards fraud, corruption and unethical actions is strictly adhered to. Our Group policies on Fraud Investigation and Whistleblower help with our fraud risk management. We conduct fraud and control awareness programmes throughout the year to constantly refresh and update our people in this area. All new hires are required to complete a fraud awareness training via e-Learning within one month of joining the company. Our whistleblower hotlines allow staff and any external party at any location to report any incident of misconduct.
Despite such controls and measures, there had been occasional instances of policy breaches. In Singapore, there was an incident of two employees from NCS, our ICT arm in Singapore, colluding with a vendor to create fictitious invoices. In Australia, there were two incidents involving contract value inflation and supplier preference. When these cases came to our knowledge, we immediately launched independent internal investigations, reported the matters to the police and terminated the services of the staff involved.
We disclose the high level nature of such incidents as part of our corporate transparency. We are however not at liberty to disclose specific details as these could prejudice ongoing investigations by the relevant authorities or criminal trials.
We also terminated our relationship with a blog advertising network agency for executing an online social media campaign in Singapore that ran against our business practices and code of ethics.