American company Dow Inc and the government of the Asian country are accused of defrauding a program to build recreational spaces
The American petrochemical company dow inc and the government of Singapore are accused of not complying with the tennis recycling agreement for the construction of playgrounds, playgrounds and running tracks in the Asian country. The alleged fraud was raised in the news agency special report Reuterspublished on Saturday (25.Feb.2023).
A Reuters placed tracking devices on 11 shoes donated to the social project in order to determine their final destination. However, the sneakers were not at BT Sports Pte Ltd, a Singapore company responsible for recycling and shredding shoes for the construction of recreational spaces. Most of them were exported to Indonesian markets.
The investigation began with the donation of a blue Nike shoe to the project in July 2022. The bluetooth tracker was placed in a cavity in the inner sole and covered with an insole. The device was connected to a smartphone application, which showed the shoe’s location in real time.
Within weeks the pair of shoes had left the country and were being transported by sea to the island of Batam. When verifying the possible deviation, the Reuters donated another 10 sneakers, all with trackers. None of them have been turned into tracks, playgrounds and playgrounds in Singapore. Only 1 pair of sneakers did not end up in the Indonesian archipelago.
The journalists traveled to the destinations of the shoes, which were indicated by the application, namely: Jakarta, Batam, Bekasi, Banjarbaru and Medã. The pair of sneakers that remained in Singapore did not go to the recycling company responsible for shredding or even to a recreational space. The shoes were not even found.
On January 18, 2023, Dow Inc announced the opening of a joint investigation with the state agency Sport Singapore to investigate the alleged deviations. Other sponsors of the social project are also part of the investigation of reported cases: the French sporting goods retailer Decathlon SA; British banking giant Standard Chartered Bank; Alba W&H Smart City Pte. Ltd (Alba-WH), a waste management company, and BT Sports Pte Ltd, both based in Singapore.
The investigation concluded on February 22. In a note, Dow Inc said the removal of York Impex from the project as of March 1, but did not explain to the report how the clothing exporter is involved in the deviations. The institution was responsible for picking up the donation shoes for delivery to BT Sports Pte Ltd. Another company is sought to transfer the shoes to the program.
“The project partners will not tolerate any unauthorized removal or export of shoes collected through this program and remain committed to safeguarding the integrity of the collection and recycling process”told Dow Inc.
wanted by Reuters on Feb. 23, York Impex said the company would leave the project at the end of the one-year contract, without a reason or exact date.
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