SINGAPORE — The Singapore Sports Hub (SHPL) has been hit by another round of senior-management level departures, following a first wave of resignations back in December.

According to socio-political news website, The Online Citizen, the most recent high-profile departures in the past two months include Rob Abernethy, the deputy managing director of Global Spectrum Asia (GSA), which is one of the four partners in the Sports Hub consortium, acting managing director Jason Hrick, director of marketing and communications Eugene Lee, and Daniel Teo, the director of facility management at Cushman & Wakefield, which is another consortium partner.

Other resignations include senior creative manager Hendra Chong, senior manager for social media Daphne Chew and communications manager Sam Eatwell.

This is similar to the situation back in December when the SHPL confirmed that Mark Collins, then the managing director of Global Spectrum Pico (GSP), and Daphne Letournel, who was the GSP director of contracts and compliance, had “stepped aside” from their positions.

Senior director of corporate communications and stakeholder management, Jose Raymond, also left the company around that time, which was about two months after Manu Sawhney took over from Philippe Collin-Delavaud as SHPL chief executive officer.

Back then, sources told TODAY that Collins — whom they described as popular and respected among his employees — had been having disagreements with Sawhney over the direction taken in discussions with event organisers and partners in the staging of events at the S$1.33 billion Kallang facility.

Yesterday, several ex-SHPL staff, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told TODAY that the departures were not unexpected given the “low morale among their colleagues” caused by the lack of communication, and actions by the company’s leadership.

“Overall, the relationships between the consortium partners have not been very strong since the new CEO came on board, and especially after the way Mark was treated,” said a source.

“Since then, there has been very little communication by the leadership. There have been a lot of closed-door decisions, and we have not heard from the CEO regarding his vision and direction for the Sports Hub since he came on board.”

Another source said: “A lot of new staff, including senior management, have been hired over the last several months but no one tells us who they are, or what they will be doing. They show up all of a sudden.

“As a result, people get affected. They start wondering whether the new staff are here to eventually replace them.”

A former employee said the current leadership has also been questioning present staff about previous management decisions.

“My colleagues and I have been made to feel as though we are always at fault for those decisions. This has really hurt morale,” said the ex-staffer.

Yesterday, in response to TODAY’s query on the recent resignations at senior management level, SHPL senior director for corporate communications and stakeholder management Chin Sau Ho said the company was “disappointed that an online site has decided to publish an article without verifying the facts”.

He said in a statement: “Since early August, we have welcomed Peter Sullivan — who has over 30 years of experience in the industry — as General Manager with Global Spectrum, to the senior management team at the Singapore Sports Hub.

“This, as part of a smooth transition from Jason Hrick who continues to be involved in the project albeit in a different capacity as vice-president, Business Operations and Strategy, Corporate Partnerships — Asia, with Lagardere Sports, another of our valued partners.

“We have also welcomed Adam Firth, who has close to 20 years in the sporting and entertainment industry, as vice-president, Commercial to the team.”

With regard to Abernethy. Chin said: “(He) will sadly be leaving us to assume the role of general manager for Rugby World Cup 2019. However, we are truly pleased for him with this prestigious appointment and thank him for his valuable contribution to the Singapore Sports Hub.”

The SHPL’s statement did not answer TODAY’s query on the number of resignations that have taken place, and whether there was unhappiness among the staff with the current leadership.

After its opening in June 2014, the Sports Hub experienced several initial problems. These included the poor state of the National Stadium’s grass pitch, roof leakages, and complaints by event organisers about the high cost of hosting sports events at the 55,000-capacity stadium.

This year, however, the National Stadium staged a fairly successful HSBC Singapore Rugby Sevens tournament in April which drew under 50,000 spectators over just two days, the Asia Masters Athletics Championships, the AFC Cup match between Tampines Rovers and Selangor, and this year’s National Day Parade.

The Kallang venue will also hold a concert by Jay Chou next month, and the Battle of Europe 2016 football match between the masters teams of Germany and England in November, while the Indoor Stadium will host concerts by Kit Chan and Fish Leong.

However, a software glitch in the National Stadium’s roof lighting system during the NDP resulted in the Singapore flag not being projected onto the stadium roof at the end of the celebrations as planned.

The Singapore Sports Hub is a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) project where the Sports Hub consortium has a 25-year contract with the Sports Singapore to design, build, finance and operate the Sports Hub.

The private sector Sports Hub consortium includes four equity partners: InfraRed Capital Partners, Dragages Singapore (also the Design & Building Contractor), Cushman & Wakefield (also the Facility Management Partner) and Global Spectrum Asia (also the Venue Operations Partner)