True picture is stuck in the post

For an organization desperate to be seen as more efficient and business-like, Royal Mail seems to be displaying a cavalier attitude to its ultimate backers – its customers and the British taxpayer. Any listed company that delayed its annual report for three months for no stated reason would be treated with impatience if not downright suspicion.

For Royal Mail, the time lag is even more egregious because it doesn’t publish its financial results separately. The annual report is the first chance to gauge the health of the company.

While the regulator PostComm says it has been given the entire document, the same courtesy has not been extended to either Parliament, customers or the media. Royal Mail won’t explain. It may just be that the GBP 4 billion refinancing of the business has injected major complications, but that should not have had any impact on the relevant reporting period.

There are two theories about the delay. One is that it is to suppress embarrassing management bonuses during the current industrial dispute, which is partly over staff pay. The other is that the bottom line is rather healthier than management would like known at a time when it is seeking to keep the annual staff pay rise this year to 2.5 per cent.

Neither is a legitimate reason for burying the news, bad or good. The series of rolling strikes is producing real pain by hitting companies’ cash flow. The old excuse, the cheque’s in the post, is being met with even more hollow laughter than usual. The stoppages will soon start to affect students awaiting exam results. At a time when the public is being seriously inconvenienced, the ploy – if that is what it turns out to be – looks crass.