{"id":2864,"date":"2010-03-26T14:16:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-26T14:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/2010\/03\/26\/like-it-or-not-in-procurement-you-have-to-choose-your-friends-carefully\/"},"modified":"2021-07-27T08:20:37","modified_gmt":"2021-07-27T12:20:37","slug":"like-it-or-not-in-procurement-you-have-to-choose-your-friends-carefully","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/like-it-or-not-in-procurement-you-have-to-choose-your-friends-carefully\/","title":{"rendered":"Like It Or Not, In Procurement You Have To Choose Your Friends Carefully"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here in Pittsburgh, there never seems to be a long respite between public procurement scandals. The latest involves Michael Kenney, the executive director of the Pittsburgh Water &amp; Sewer Authority, who reportedly has close ties to one of the companies with whom the city has a contract.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t miss updates on Procurement &amp; Supply Chain, Subscribe here!<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the situation\u2026The city has a contract with a company called Utility Line Security (ULS) to offer to city water customers a warranty (read: insurance) on their sewer pipes which, if they collapse, could result in huge repair bills for those customers. The problem lies with the relationship between Kenney and ULS.<\/p>\n<p>According to three articles in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (here, here and here), these aspects define the Kenney\/ULS relationship:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In Kenney\u2019s previous role as operations manager of the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County, he reported to executives of ULS\u2019 sister company, Resource Development and Management (RDM), who also paid Kenney for consulting work<\/li>\n<li>Kenney hired RDM to do consulting work shortly after transitioning to his role in Pittsburgh<\/li>\n<li>Around a year after joining the Pittsburgh agency, the city \u201cinvited proposals from firms interested in offering line warranties to its customers, who could opt to have the charge added to their bills.\u201d ULS was the only challenger who bid against the incumbent. This concerned City Council, who felt that there should have been \u201cdozens of companies that bid on it,\u201d and suppliers, who claim to have not been aware of the opportunity.<\/li>\n<li>After ULS won the Pittsburgh contract, they \u201cwent on to employ two of Mr. Kenney\u2019s relatives\u201d<\/li>\n<li>After implementation of the contract that saw less than 3% of customers opt in, the city changed the process from an opt-in process to one in which the warranty is assigned to all households, but allowing them the opportunity to opt-out. Only 8 \u2013 9% have opted out, increasing ULS\u2019 Pittsburgh customers from 3,000 to 90,000. Though ULS did reduce its price in exchange for such an arrangements, some question whether the entire relationship should have been rebid to reflect this new scope of work. After all, there is no contemporaneous, apples-to-apples benchmark for whether or not the adjusted price is fair.<\/li>\n<li>Kenney has had a \u201clong professional and personal relationship with\u201d ULS\u2019 founder<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In procurement, you oversee contract awards daily. Is overseeing a contract award to a friend unethical?<\/p>\n<p>In one of the above-linked articles, Barry Kauffman, executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, said the litmus test under state ethics law would be whether Kenney\u2019s decision brought financial benefit to Kenney or his immediate family, stating \u201cIf you just gave a contract to your friends and don\u2019t have any financial remuneration in any way, shape, or form, it\u2019s kind of slippery, but it\u2019s probably not against the law.\u201d Furthermore, the chairman of the water and sewer authority stated that relationships \u201ccan be useful\u201d but should be disclosed.<\/p>\n<p>However, City Councilman Doug Shields was quoted as saying \u201cIt just looks absolutely terrible, the way this was done, the cozy relationships, the affinity for one another.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My take: when it comes to purchasing ethics, perception is reality. If you have a relationship with a current or prospective supplier, go above minimum requirements to make the relationship known to management and recuse yourself from the decision.<\/p>\n<p>Or \u2013 to be safest \u2013 simply avoid having friends who may be suppliers to your organization. That may not seem fair, but such is the way of responsible procurement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here in Pittsburgh, there never seems to be a long [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":4093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-procurement"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.13 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Like It Or Not, In Procurement You Have To Choose Your Friends Carefully - Next Level Purchasing Association (NLPA)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/like-it-or-not-in-procurement-you-have-to-choose-your-friends-carefully\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Like It Or Not, In Procurement You Have To Choose Your Friends Carefully - Next Level Purchasing Association (NLPA)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here in Pittsburgh, there never seems to be a long [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/like-it-or-not-in-procurement-you-have-to-choose-your-friends-carefully\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Next Level Purchasing Association (NLPA)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NextLevelPurchasing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-03-26T14:16:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-07-27T12:20:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/11\/nlpa-images-103.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1067\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Galo Matagay\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@nextlevelpurch\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@nextlevelpurch\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Galo Matagay\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/like-it-or-not-in-procurement-you-have-to-choose-your-friends-carefully\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/like-it-or-not-in-procurement-you-have-to-choose-your-friends-carefully\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Galo Matagay\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/#\/schema\/person\/72d094fab77892483dfa6e061cb27eaa\"},\"headline\":\"Like It Or Not, In Procurement You Have To Choose Your Friends Carefully\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-03-26T14:16:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-07-27T12:20:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/like-it-or-not-in-procurement-you-have-to-choose-your-friends-carefully\/\"},\"wordCount\":594,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Procurement\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/like-it-or-not-in-procurement-you-have-to-choose-your-friends-carefully\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/like-it-or-not-in-procurement-you-have-to-choose-your-friends-carefully\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/like-it-or-not-in-procurement-you-have-to-choose-your-friends-carefully\/\",\"name\":\"Like It Or Not, In Procurement You Have To Choose Your Friends Carefully - Next Level Purchasing Association (NLPA)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-03-26T14:16:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-07-27T12:20:37+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/like-it-or-not-in-procurement-you-have-to-choose-your-friends-carefully\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/like-it-or-not-in-procurement-you-have-to-choose-your-friends-carefully\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/like-it-or-not-in-procurement-you-have-to-choose-your-friends-carefully\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Like It Or Not, In Procurement You Have To Choose Your Friends Carefully\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/\",\"name\":\"Next Level Purchasing Association (NLPA)\",\"description\":\"The Next Level Purchasing Association\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Next Level Purchasing Association (NLPA)\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/08\/NLPA-logo-small-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/08\/NLPA-logo-small-1.png\",\"width\":149,\"height\":50,\"caption\":\"Next Level Purchasing Association (NLPA)\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/next-level-purchasing-association\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCrNZYjcLcaNA4xMKQHEGamw\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NextLevelPurchasing\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nextlevelpurch\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/#\/schema\/person\/72d094fab77892483dfa6e061cb27eaa\",\"name\":\"Galo Matagay\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34d4be7be9c43eeb480e7e32739c2f3f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34d4be7be9c43eeb480e7e32739c2f3f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Galo Matagay\"},\"description\":\"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aenean consequat rutrum ipsum quis iaculis. Duis non porta purus, tincidunt tristique mi. Cras eleifend tincidunt mollis. Aliquam egestas velit vitae interdum egestas. Aliquam vel lorem egestas lectus porttitor volutpat nec sit amet enim. Nullam bibendum vestibulum imperdiet.\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Like It Or Not, In Procurement You Have To Choose Your Friends Carefully - Next Level Purchasing Association (NLPA)","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/like-it-or-not-in-procurement-you-have-to-choose-your-friends-carefully\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Like It Or Not, In Procurement You Have To Choose Your Friends Carefully - Next Level Purchasing Association (NLPA)","og_description":"Here in Pittsburgh, there never seems to be a long [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/like-it-or-not-in-procurement-you-have-to-choose-your-friends-carefully\/","og_site_name":"Next Level Purchasing Association (NLPA)","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NextLevelPurchasing\/","article_published_time":"2010-03-26T14:16:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-07-27T12:20:37+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1600,"height":1067,"url":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/11\/nlpa-images-103.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Galo Matagay","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@nextlevelpurch","twitter_site":"@nextlevelpurch","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Galo Matagay","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/like-it-or-not-in-procurement-you-have-to-choose-your-friends-carefully\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/like-it-or-not-in-procurement-you-have-to-choose-your-friends-carefully\/"},"author":{"name":"Galo Matagay","@id":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/#\/schema\/person\/72d094fab77892483dfa6e061cb27eaa"},"headline":"Like It Or Not, In Procurement You Have To Choose Your Friends Carefully","datePublished":"2010-03-26T14:16:00+00:00","dateModified":"2021-07-27T12:20:37+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/like-it-or-not-in-procurement-you-have-to-choose-your-friends-carefully\/"},"wordCount":594,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Procurement"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/like-it-or-not-in-procurement-you-have-to-choose-your-friends-carefully\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/like-it-or-not-in-procurement-you-have-to-choose-your-friends-carefully\/","url":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/like-it-or-not-in-procurement-you-have-to-choose-your-friends-carefully\/","name":"Like It Or Not, In Procurement You Have To Choose Your Friends Carefully - Next Level Purchasing Association (NLPA)","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-03-26T14:16:00+00:00","dateModified":"2021-07-27T12:20:37+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/like-it-or-not-in-procurement-you-have-to-choose-your-friends-carefully\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/like-it-or-not-in-procurement-you-have-to-choose-your-friends-carefully\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/like-it-or-not-in-procurement-you-have-to-choose-your-friends-carefully\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Like It Or Not, In Procurement You Have To Choose Your Friends Carefully"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/","name":"Next Level Purchasing Association (NLPA)","description":"The Next Level Purchasing Association","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/#organization","name":"Next Level Purchasing Association (NLPA)","url":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/08\/NLPA-logo-small-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/08\/NLPA-logo-small-1.png","width":149,"height":50,"caption":"Next Level Purchasing Association (NLPA)"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/next-level-purchasing-association\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCrNZYjcLcaNA4xMKQHEGamw","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NextLevelPurchasing\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/nextlevelpurch"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/#\/schema\/person\/72d094fab77892483dfa6e061cb27eaa","name":"Galo Matagay","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34d4be7be9c43eeb480e7e32739c2f3f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34d4be7be9c43eeb480e7e32739c2f3f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Galo Matagay"},"description":"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aenean consequat rutrum ipsum quis iaculis. Duis non porta purus, tincidunt tristique mi. Cras eleifend tincidunt mollis. Aliquam egestas velit vitae interdum egestas. Aliquam vel lorem egestas lectus porttitor volutpat nec sit amet enim. Nullam bibendum vestibulum imperdiet."}]}},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2864"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2864"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13856,"href":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2864\/revisions\/13856"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}