Grrr … argh!
I could feel a slight annoyance welling up.
Maybe it was because I needed another coffee to really get in my groove for the day.
Or perhaps it was due to the lingering peevishness I still carried from the earlier conversation with my mistress, when she had manipulated me into a promise of yet another shopping trip—something that always gives my bank manager the jitters and swallows up my whole day.
Whatever it was, at that precise moment I felt like reaching through my phone screen to grab the minister by his collar and give him a few slaps, as I read his words in the Reuters article.
How can a government minister sign off a purchasing agreement worth nearly half a billion dollars annually with “no idea” who the supplier is?!
It beggars belief.
It also smells fishy—I suspect there’s more to this.
Or the minister’s conduct shows his utter incompetence and fiduciary negligence.
The story is another fallout from an ongoing bribery scandal. So maybe the whiff of murkiness shouldn’t be surprising.
I knew my irritation had nothing to do with my mistress or caffeine, really. It was the frustration and disappointment of yet another example of gross procurement stupidity.
And the fact that it was in the public sector—where taxpayers’ money is spent, or squandered—made it more awful.
Deals and standards
Procurement people in the public sector in many countries already have enough challenges in securing value for money in government buying, especially with the social objectives and political intents baked into public spending. And most of them do a decent job. But when ministers or other government bureaucrats act or interfere ineffectually, they make the public procurement activity look inept and inadequate, resulting in bad PR.
It greatly demeans the efforts of purchasing practitioners in the public sector.
And that’s aside from the inefficiencies and screw-ups that result from shoddy purchasing or flawed procurement deals.
If anything, senior government officials should be holding public procurement processes and staff accountable, routinely and constantly.
Yes, it’s a truism that many business deals are actually done on the golf course, in the lounges of private members’ clubs and over scrumptious meals at top restaurants. And not just public purchasing deals; it happens in the private sector too, where the CEO’s buddy’s company is given a shoo-in for some contract or another.
But this is exactly one of the critical areas where purchasing professionals should earn their keep in organizations, by insisting on high ethical and moral standards of governance, not just vis-à-vis supplier selections but throughout the whole source-to-pay process.
We signed up to such standards when we joined professional bodies like Institute of Supply Management (ISM) and The Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS).
And that’s besides the principles of our own individual moral compass.
Walking the talk
So what happens when our morals and ethics come up against the CEO’s cronyism, the managing director’s nepotism, the commissioner’s partisanship, or the government minister’s professed obliviousness?
As a procurement practitioner if you need my answer on this, then maybe you’re in the wrong profession.
Maybe if you sit under the oak tree with an acorn in your palm for long enough, your own answer will come to you.
A more important question for us all is: What happens when a procurement person comes up against their own moral compass and has to walk their talk? What smell emanates then?
I’ve faced this situation myself.
On one occasion, when I led the worldwide logistics and freight purchasing function at one multinational company, I had to go through the rigmarole with the chief executive of a global logistics service provider (LSP) who was pals with someone on our board. (He could have become my pal too rather than just a contact, if I had accepted his invitation for a cruise on his yacht.)
The dance of the rigmarole was taxing. But it was also a great learning and development experience that sharpened my dance moves at senior executive level.
In the end, we did not engage that LSP.
It required tact, resourcefulness, organizational savvy and strength of character on my part to ensure I didn’t sacrifice value for money on our logistics spend, nor compromise my integrity, my relationships or my job.
Conduct and karma
Losing or quitting your job is probably one end of the spectrum of consequences for purchasing people in such situations.
Getting a cut of a fraudulent procurement deal, or being the perpetrator, is perhaps the other end.
If you’re the type who’d ask the minister for a cut or the commissioner for a promotion, in exchange for your collusion, then my opinions are worthless.
You have to live with yourself and the smell of your conduct.
If you’re in a developing or impoverished country, where unemployment is rampant and getting a job is like manna from heaven, then it’s understandable how tormenting such a situation would be. And I’m loath to lecture you, having never walked a mile in your shoes.
Ultimately, though, wherever you land on the spectrum, you too will have to live with yourself.
In fact, whatever our personal circumstances, we all have to live with ourselves and our truths, whether we’re guided by God, Allah, Brahman, the Universe, … or just our inner compass.
So don’t deceive yourself; your karma awaits you—somewhere, somehow, sometime.
And don’t short-change your customers: the stakeholders you’re meant to buy goods and services for, and those whose tax or budget dollars you’re supposed to spend in a safe, ethical and cost-effective manner.
Remember, the eye of truth is always watching our talk and our walk, regardless if we’re procurement professionals, CEOs, commissioners, “oblivious” government ministers, or plain crooks.
