I am presently assigned to a fifth class municipality.  Seventy percent of the land area is mountains, and only 30% are accessible to motor vehicle.  It has a total population of 20,000 residents.  The geographic terrain hinders residents from transporting their goods to nearby markets.  During the rainy season, the roads become impassable.

The Rural Health Unit is the only health facility providing health care service.  There are no private practitioners in the vicinity.  Thus, both those who can afford and the indigent depend on the health facility for free medicine and laboratory services. Since the main source of income of the residents is selling root crops and other indigenous products, only 35% are employed.  Thus, the incidence of poverty is high.  Most often, people expect the local government to shoulder all their needs from food to coffin.

The dilemma of the Local Chief Executive is where to get the funds to assist her constituents; this she addresses by presiding over anomalous procurement transactions.  The end may be noble, but the means certainly are not!

This dilemma is passed on to me, a Bids and Awards Committee member.  I know the dos and don’ts in the procurement of suppliers.  But here comes the Local Chief Executive: expecting me to cooperate, she introduced me to a supplier and told me that on my next bidding I should not inform other bidders because there will only be one bidder.  I understood what she meant by that.  She told me that the bidding should not be announced and she will take care of the BAC chairman and the other BAC members.

The bidding went smoothly like she wanted, with only one bidder bidding.  I made an excuse not to attend the bidding because “there are many clients in my clinic.”  Eventually, the award was given to the sole bidder.  I know everything that happened was wrong.

To get even with the supplier, I then refused to accept her delivery.  She delivered 250 mg instead of 500 mg tablets of an antibiotic, and 89 bottles instead of 100 bottles of another medicine.  I gave her a hard time.  Eventually she delivered the correct dosage and amount of medicines.  The rest is history.

I may not be fair and honest when I tolerated the Local Chief Executive with regard pushing through with a flawed bidding, but I’d like to think I made up for it by being ultra scrupulous with dealing with medicine delivery. Discussion questions:

1. If you were the writer, how would you have handled the situation?
2. Narrate the horror stories of medicine and supplies procurement in your local government.  What concrete, doable measures can you undertake to contribute to the correction of this flawed process.
3. How do we inspire our subordinates and colleagues to maintain their personal integrity in an environment where comprising your integrity seems to be the norm?