A number of years ago I was in a similar situation. I was working for government and one of the mangers, my level not senior to me, had an interesting scheme. When the central purchasing agency put contracts on the street he would contact the bidders and tell them that he could fix things for them and guarantee the contract. He would then let the normal bidding process take its course (but with much higher prices since the bidders all thought that they had it in the bag and could make back the bribe and something extra) and then give back the money to anyone who was unsuccessful. The successful bidder would go on thinking he had bought the contract and the unsuccessful bidders had no option. How could they complain that they were unsuccessful in bribing a public official when they had got their money back?
This came to my attention through a friend who was a contractor, not bidding on our work, who heard it through a supplier who was complaining about the process. I contacted an acquaintance who was an RCMP officer in their commercial crime division and was told that this would be almost impossible to prove. I brought the matter to the attention of our mutual boss who assigned another manager at our level to investigate. Turns out the investigator was also involved. Needless to say the investigation “proved” that I was wrong and that everything was fair and above board. It did however put a stop to the practice.
I was then put through a couple years of on the job hell for making false accusations. They also tried to make some counter accusations but were not able to make anything stick. (I was accused of taking free lunches from a contractor. The contractor was a friend as well as a supplier and we took turns buying lunches, because of our friendship he had never been approached in this scheme. Good thing I kept most of my receipts. They had detailed records of when and where we had gone for lunch, the accuracy of their observations was confirmed by my credit card receipts.)
The manager took a lateral move to the same job at another location where he did the same thing. This time it was his boss who found out and conducted the investigation. Just before the boss was ready to make his move the manager took another lateral transfer to a third location where he once again did the same thing. This time his history caught up with him quickly and just before the police were coming to arrest him, he committed suicide. After that the first boss came and apologized to me for not supporting me since he said that he had had his doubts about the two managers involved.
If faced with the same situation would I blow the whistle? Yes just not in the work unit but outside to someone in authority to make a full and impartial inquiry. I would also get some better documentation and proof ready before I proceeded. If outside contractors are telling you about it then tape record them get a witness or do something so that they cannot deny it afterwards. Get one willing to go on the record and testify if necessary. Remember any significant amount of money is difficult to hide from the tax man.
Finally make sure that nothing that you have done can be misconstrued. Some of the suppliers would give us ball caps, coffee mgs etc. as advertising. I always passed them on to others in the organization. Since I had been generous and fair in handing them out it was easy to prove that I was not taking favours from the contractors. I would often take a half dozen or so and throw them on the table in the canteen for first come first served. I also always refused the offers of bottles at Christmas time. Any that were left behind went into the supply for the office Christmas party. The two involved managers claimed that they were never offered bottles and so had never donated them to the party fund. These practices helped my weather their counter allegations.
I do disagree with BobPE that the industrial exemption or even professional ethics has anything to do with your actions. Simple business ethics and your responsibility as a citizen require that take steps to combat a crime. If you came on a street mugging would your professional ethics be the main concern in cooperating with the police or would your normal civic duty be the reason that you cooperated? The only place that being a professional would be involved would be in where you would make your allegations. If both you and the accused are professional engineers then the engineering association would have to become involved. If one of you is not a P.Eng you would not have to contact the association.
Rick Kitson MBA P.Eng
Construction Project Management
From conception to completion
