Procurement integrity act is a collection of certain prohibitions that are subject to a procurement officer. They forbid disclosure of information of the process used to award a contract, taking of gifts in return of a favor, searching for employment in a competitor’s firm while employed by another firm, participating in behind the scene activities for retired officers among others(Roberts, 2010). The above act, in relation to the acquisition process, is important since it protects sharing of information illegally in exchange for monetary gains.
What needs to be changed about the above act is the prohibition of an employed individual to seek employment from a competing firm. This is because the above limits personal improvement as well as might influence firms to take less responsibility for their employees knowing that it is a little bit difficult to smoothly transitioning from one employer to another.
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A few types of procurement fraud include:
Bribes, as well as kickbacks- Bribes, are given so as to obtain a favor unfairly while kickbacks are a type of bribe given after an individual receives payment on completing a contract(Ware et al, .2011).
Co-mingling of contracts-This is a form of fraud where the contractor tries to make extra money by submitting extra or multiple billings for an activity that has only coasted him or her once(Abuya, 2016).
Conflict of interest- This happens when procurement officers receive gifts or engage in conversations that are prohibited with vendors, contractors or any other stakeholders.
Procurement fraud remedies
Suspension- Here the official caught engaging in malpractice is banned from acting on behalf of a company or even acting as an independent contractor.
Debarment of the official in question. The above involves withdrawing some privileges entitled to the person in question (Shaw, 1999).
If fraud is realized before the contractor is paid, payment can be withheld.
Although the above remedies could alleviate levels of fraud, a change should be constituted by adding up means to detecting malpractice before it occurs. Screening of all processes before they are approved is, for example, a great cautionary aspect to include.
References
Abuya, I. O. (2016). Project Fraud: Conceptualization, Determinants and Schemes.
Roberts, R. N. (2010). Mandatory contractor codes of ethics and defense procurement integrity. Journal of Public Procurement , 10 (2), 247-274.
Shaw, S. A. (1999). Suspension and Debarment: The First Line of Defense against Contractor Fraud and Abuse. Reporter , 26 , 4.
Ware, G. T., Moss, S., Campos, J. E., & Noone, G. P. (2011). Corruption in procurement. Handbook of Global Research and Practice in Corruption , 65-107.
