Martin Beemer is the purchasing manager for the police department in a large metropolitan city.
The city has 13,000 police officers. The city currently purchases police uniforms from three different manufacturers, one of which is SunKing, International (a Korean company). Martin recently agreed (in private) with SunKing’s vice president to give SunKing increased business if SunKing would hire his daughter as a “ghost” salesperson in the United States at a salary of $350,000 per year.
1. Do you believe the actions of Martin and SunKing are unethical? Fraudulent?
2. What internal process performance measures could the city have had in place in the purchasing department that could have revealed the kickback arrangement?