Imagine yourself in a situation where you are a manager in a government establis

Question

Imagine yourself in a situation where you are a manager in a government establishment. A bid has been submitted to your office for supply of new computers and your best friend’s company (Radax) is one of the bidders. Your friend has spoken to you about the bid and you have realized that Radax does not really have the best bid. Describe the ethical concerns that have arisen from this scenario. Do you think your choice would be most affected by your individual moral development or by the cultural values of the organisation for which you work? Explain.

Explanation / Answer

Ethics is defined as

Ethics is moral principles, code of conduct by which human actions and

Proposals may be perceived as good or bad, value, thoughts and set of rules of conduct recognized in person of groups.

There is term associated with ethics is Professional ethics.

It is for any profession, with set of principles, ideas, perceptions and attitudes based right or wrong in action with concern of professionalism that is used to regulate the way the profession is conducted and practiced. Ethics are

Standards followed by people in making business decisions and activities.

With respect to above scenario:

In inviting bids from competitive market, most of construction contracts either in private or public company, are finalized through negotiation or through open competitive bidding. In public work or in government organization, all contracts floated and awarded through open competitive bidding. The process only works transparently when ethical standards and procedures are followed by officials. It is called Code of Ethical Conduct.

When contractors bid amount or quantity on floated work, they estimate the cost of the project, items to be supplied in work, add direct and indirect costs and profit margin and sum up with a single quote which is called final price of bid. The lowest qualified bidder is awarded the work.

The ethics issues are similar in private and public contracting. In public Work, the inviting party is spending tax payers money so there is more restrictions and conditions in contract. Ethical issue like profit marginal ethics.

The way to avoid this ethical issues is to quarry or justification about quoted commitment at the prequalification stage. Ethical issues can be addresses by acquiring certification to a membership of organizations like

American Institute of Architects, (AIA) 16 and the Association of General Contractors, (AGC).

Being manager of government organization, It is very important duty to concern about conflict of interest while evaluating bidding and further procedure. All members of the evaluation panel should agree upon signing confidentiality and non-disclosure statement in declaring absence of any individual or business entity with firms which are being evaluated.

As public procurement evaluator and decision maker, we have ethical responsibility to manage the public procurement process within ethical and legal framework and principles. Our personal interest and preferences like our family, relatives, friends and associates should not interfere or being considered or influence on the decisions we take while evaluating and performing our official duties.

Procurement - Code of Conduct

Public procurement principles are designed to address in the procurement legal framework. They act as the base of the public procurement code of conduct which have set of rules and guidelines for those involved in the procurement process including suppliers, contractors , evaluators, government officials and other service providers.

As public procurement manager, we have a responsibility to always serve in public interest while performing our duties. It is also our duty to understand and identify any actual, future, potential or perceived situation of conflict of public interest and other ethical standards influence public practices. It is taken care for anyone who involved in the evaluation process, selection and contract monitoring and awarding processes. Whenever we have situations of conflict of interest, we must take the necessary action to not to disclose any confidential information to other. It will make healthy organization culture and environment in ethical way to conduct business. It is to note that any organization is judged by its image, reputation which is a result of integrity in doing business in market and behaviour of employees. The ethics and standards of the company’s top management and employees make up companies reputation and whether they are perceived as ethical or not. The set of moral standards, values those used to guide our decision making process in organization are our ethics.

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