Soup Restaurant sacks senior manager after $1.05m discrepancy found

SINGAPORE - A senior manager at Soup Restaurant Group has been dismissed after irregular transactions totalling $1.05 million were discovered.

Soup Restaurant had first announced the dismissal of a Chan Chee Hung, 41, on the SGX website on June 28.

In its announcement, the group said that the termination of its senior manager of Food Processing and Logistic was made by decision of the board.

Mr Chan is described as being in charge "of the overall operations of the Food Processing Facility and food products trading functions of the Group".

He previously served as director at Y.E.S F&B Group for 6 years until 2009.

Lianhe Wanbao reported in an article on July 4 that the management of Soup Restaurant Group had discovered discrepancies in the transactions of Soup Restaurant and its subsidiary Sure Food.

According to the article, Soup Restaurant and Sure Food had paid approximately $1.05 million to different companies from 2004 to 2013.

Mr Chan is being accused of forging the documents relating to these transactions.

The group has since contacted its lawyers and notified its auditors, Wanbao reported.

Soup Restaurant Group says auditors have been unable to validate these transactions, and added that it was unaware of them.

The group is now conducting a probe into these and other possible transactions to find out how much money has been lost through them.

The Chinese daily also reported that Soup Restaurant has engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers to look into the company's current processes and recommend any improvements which can be made.

ljessica@sph.com.sg