There has been an uproar in Pennsylvania over the last few days over a government contract.<\/p>\n
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You see, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (LCB), which operates all of the wine and spirits shops in the state, was seeking to improve its customer service. So it requested bids from consulting firms to provide customer service training to its 3,000 employees.<\/p>\n
It awarded the bid to the low bidder. The owner of the winning firm is the husband of a regional manager and that has gotten political opponents of Governor Rendell, the losing bidders, and other the-government-is-corrupt types in a tizzy.<\/p>\n
Now, let\u2019s make something explicity clear here for the sake of eternal clarity\u2026<\/p>\n
It is generally OK for a company or government agency to purchase goods or services from a company owned by the spouse of any employee.<\/p>\n
It is. It really is.<\/p>\n
It becomes un-OK (i.e., of questionable ethics) when that employee is a decision-maker or influencer of the decision to award the business. It also is unacceptable for the employee to have access to any \u201cinside\u201d information about the bids that could be shared with the spouse.<\/p>\n
The LCB contends that the employee in question, Susanne Hobart, was not involved in the procurement process. And, despite the public outrage, none of the politicians or other critics have shared one bit of evidence that Mrs. Hobart was involved, had any influence, or had access to inside information.<\/p>\n
They are complaining just because of the relationship. And, in my opinion, that\u2019s wrong. It is certainly possible that this procurement was done cleanly and responsibly. But the inevitable investigation by Governor Rendell will reveal the truth.<\/p>\n
I have many conflicting emotions about this situation:<\/p>\n
What do you think?<\/p>\n
Considering that disputes like this happen all the time in government procurement, does it scare you that the stimulus of our economy is depending on government procurement processes?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There has been an uproar in Pennsylvania over the last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":4109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-procurement"],"yoast_head":"\n