According to an article in the Philippine Star, auditors have found that the Philippine government’s Office of the Omsbudsman has violated procurement law.  Apparently the office purchased some IT equipment without conducting competitive bidding.

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The article notes that purchases can be made without competitive bidding, but only when the Bids and Awards Committee writes a resolution justifying and recommending an “alternate mode of procurement” to the government’s top procurement executive.  That didn’t happen.

So what’s so shocking about this story?

That a government department failed to comply with competitive bidding requirements?

No, not shocking.  Unfortunately, that happens all the time.

That the offending entity was the Office of the Ombudsman?

After all, an ombudsman is supposed to be a trusted person who helps people with complaints – often related to ethical violations – about the ombudsman’s organization.  Well, yeah, that is kind of shocking although sometimes people in positions of trust are those that behave in the least trustworthy ways.  But that wasn’t exactly it either.

Actually, the most shocking thing about the story is that the top procurement executive for the Philippine government has the title of HOPE – Head of Procuring Entity!

Maybe I’m just a procurement nerd, but I find that funny!  I hope that all of you HOPEs out there did, too.