{"id":3291,"date":"2014-03-27T18:18:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-27T18:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/2014\/03\/27\/the-most-common-stupid-and-avoidable-excuse-for-procurement-ethics-violations\/"},"modified":"2023-06-17T08:54:11","modified_gmt":"2023-06-17T12:54:11","slug":"the-most-common-stupid-and-avoidable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/the-most-common-stupid-and-avoidable\/","title":{"rendered":"The Most Common, Stupid, and AVOIDABLE Excuse For Procurement Ethics Violations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cheswick, Pennsylvania is a small town.\u00a0 For most purposes, it\u2019s pretty much irrelevant. But, for this story, it is very relevant.<\/p>\n

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Why?<\/p>\n

Because there are probably just over a bajillion small towns just like Cheswick in the USA.\u00a0 And, right now, procurement ethics violations could be happening in each and every one of them right at this very nanosecond just like they were happening in Cheswick from about 2010 to 2013.<\/p>\n

What was going on in Cheswick?<\/p>\n

Well, apparently, a Cheswick councilman during that period owned a company that was a vendor of the town.\u00a0 Now, that itself isn\u2019t necessarily an ethical violation.\u00a0 But, according to an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the former councilman, Brian Harvanek,\u00a0 failed to file documents or abide by contract value limits that would have made his being a vendor permissible.<\/p>\n

That, my friends, is what you call a classic conflict of interest.<\/p>\n

And, unfortunately, Harvanek\u2019s \u201cexcuse\u201d for this conflict of interest was equally as classic.<\/p>\n

The article states that Harvanek said that all of this stuff went down because of him being \u201cignorant of the ethics laws when he took office.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Almost every time that someone is investigated for a procurement ethics violation \u2013 either in the public sector or in the business world \u2013 they always say \u201cbut I didn\u2019t know that was an ethical violation.\u201d\u00a0 While we would all like to think that procurement ethics are common sense, they clearly are not. (https:\/\/jldancecenter.com\/<\/a>) <\/p>\n

And that\u2019s sad.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s sad because organizations have done implemented so much new employee training on other \u201cgrey areas.\u201d\u00a0 Sexual harassment is a good example.\u00a0 From what I understand, back in the day, male employees would often say things to female employees in the workplace that are simply unthinkable today.\u00a0 Organizations have done a good job at clarifying the definition of sexual harrassment, codifying it, and training and communicating to their employees in a manner that certain behaviors don\u2019t happen nearly as often as they once did.<\/p>\n

Why organizations don\u2019t do the same with procurement ethics is beyond me.\u00a0 It\u2019s not like there aren\u2019t resources, expertise and procurement ethics training out there.<\/p>\n

How many more of these Cheswick situations are going to happen in the USA before something changes?<\/p>\n

Organizations could stop most of these Cheswicks from happening if they simply took away that most common, stupid, and avoidable excuse used by Harvanek and the countless others that made the same bad decisions.<\/p>\n

Recommended Reading<\/strong><\/p>\n

How To Get A Supplier Development Program Going<\/a><\/p>\n

The Quality Rarely Found on Procurement Job Descriptions (That\u2019s Required For Every Modern Procurement Job)<\/a><\/p>\n

e-Sourcing\/e-Procurement Webinar on February 26<\/a><\/p>\n

One Key to Better Procurement Compliance<\/a><\/p>\n

The Philosophy Behind The NLPA\u2019s Procurement Course Quizzes<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cheswick, Pennsylvania is a small town.\u00a0 For most purposes, it\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":4119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-procurement"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Most Common, Stupid, and AVOIDABLE Excuse For Procurement Ethics Violations - 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\/the-most-common-stupid-and-avoidable\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Most Common, Stupid, and AVOIDABLE Excuse For Procurement Ethics Violations\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cheswick, Pennsylvania is a small town.\u00a0 For most purposes, it\u2019s […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/the-most-common-stupid-and-avoidable\/\" \/>\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=\"2014-03-27T18:18:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-06-17T12:54:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/11\/nlpa-images-129.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=\"2 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\/the-most-common-stupid-and-avoidable\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/the-most-common-stupid-and-avoidable\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Galo Matagay\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/#\/schema\/person\/72d094fab77892483dfa6e061cb27eaa\"},\"headline\":\"The Most Common, Stupid, and AVOIDABLE Excuse For Procurement Ethics Violations\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-03-27T18:18:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-06-17T12:54:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/the-most-common-stupid-and-avoidable\/\"},\"wordCount\":480,\"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\/the-most-common-stupid-and-avoidable\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/the-most-common-stupid-and-avoidable\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/the-most-common-stupid-and-avoidable\/\",\"name\":\"The Most Common, Stupid, and AVOIDABLE Excuse For Procurement Ethics Violations - 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