Dilemma

I work in the procurement department of a Government institution. Due to past cases of corruption and theft through collusion we now operate under strict rules and regulations which we have to follow to the letter. One of them is that a purchase order must be printed otherwise it’s not valid. The only way around this, is by authority of the board which only meets three times in a year.

So one day it happened that a supplier we had given a large order for computer consumables, which included printer toner cartridges, informed us that he couldn’t deliver. We cancelled that order and started the process of issuing a new one to another company which took some time due to the number of signatures of approval it required. By the time it was finally approved there wasn’t any toners left in the store and the ones installed in printers had already run out of ink meaning we couldn’t print the purchase order in the precincts of the institution. The new supplier was willing to help us out by delivering a few units but there was no way security could allow goods to enter the premises without an accompanying copy of a purchase order as per the rules. As you can see we were in a quite a predicament. The board had to hold a special meeting to rescue the situation.

© james wamathai 2009