CASE STUDY

Read the case study and answer the questions that follow.

Mr. Alfred Siyanda (Alfred) is the Managing Director of Takalani Hospital which is the only state-owned hospital in the Shushu district municipality, in South Africa. Alfred is considered to be a professional accountant as he is a member of SAIPA (South African Institute of Professional Accountants). SAIPA is a member of IFAC (International Federation of Accountants). Takalani Hospital recently published an invitation to tender for the supply of disposable gloves and needles which are used in the hospital. A relative of Alfred, Unathi, recently began a start-up company Unathis Medical Supplies (Pty) Ltd. Unathis Medical Supplies (Pty) Ltd produces medical supplies including disposable gloves, needles, syringes, sanitizers etc. Unathi heard about the tender and approached Alfred regarding the tender evaluation process.

Unathi mentioned that she would be bidding for the tender and that it would make a great difference to her and her business if she won the tender. Unathi was raised in a poor family and explained to you how she is indebted after borrowing funds to begin her business and did not anticipate that she would make losses. This makes it difficult for her to repay her debts on time. Unathi requested Alfred to please ensure that she wins the tender seeing that he will be overseeing the process of awarding tenders at Takalani Hospital.

Unathi also mentioned that she knows she will not be scoring the highest number of points in the tender evaluation process given that her company is merely a start-up company and no match for other more established companies that can provide higher quality products at a lower cost. However, she has offered Alfred 10% of the future proceeds her company will generate if he could tweak the tender evaluation process to ensure that Unathis Medical Supplies (Pty) Ltd wins the tender.

Unathi is Alfreds favourite niece, and, in the spirit of Ubuntu, he always wants to help her. Furthermore, Alfreds friends have mocked his old car and he would like to replace his old car with the newest Mercedes to meet his friends high standards. For all these reasons, Alfred considers awarding the tender to his nieces company in order to get the extra money to buy the car which he will not be able to afford with his salary alone.

Alfred feels that he may be able to persuade the Internal Audit Department to overlook the awarding of this tender since the Head of the Internal Audit is a childhood friend of Alfred. Alfred also doubts whether the tender will be selected as part of the external auditors sample given that the tender value is below R1 million which is significantly less than the tender values of other tenders. In the past, Alfred never received any queries from the auditors regarding tenders below R1 million.

A new report was recently released, mentioning that citizens who were in contact with a river nearby Takalani Hospital have developed severe illnesses such as typhoid fever, cholera as well as skin lesions. The families of the sick people claim that the water in the river is contaminated because of the toxic biomedical waste that Takalani Hospital has been dumping into the river. These families threatened to take legal action should this be proven to be true. Environmental activists tested the water and confirmed that the water is contaminated. Since Takalani Hospital is the only public entity nearby the river, the environmental activists have started a protest requiring Takalani Hospitals management to admit their wrongdoing within the next 24 hours and to take responsibility for contaminating the water.

Alfred is aware that Takalani Hospital was dumping medical wastewater into the river as he gave the order to dump it. It was cheaper to dump the waste than to procure a waste management company. In addition, Alfred would receive a bonus if the hospitals municipal costs were kept to a minimum. Alfred was, however, unaware that citizens were using the water from the river and did not think there would be any repercussions of such waste disposal. Alfred is anxious as to how he will address the media with regards to this matter.

QUESTION 1 (35 marks)

1.1 From the case study, it is clear that Alfred is facing a number of ethical dilemmas. Some theories of ethics which may guide his ethical decision-making process include virtue ethics, deontological ethics and utilitarianism. Describe what these three theories of ethics mean and apply each theory to Alfred in the context of the dilemmas which he is facing.

1.1.1 Virtue ethics (4 marks) 1.1.2 Deontological ethics (4 marks) 1.1.3 Utilitarianism (4 marks)

1.2 In addition to giving orders for the dumping of biomedical wastewater, assume that Alfred also accepts the bribe that Unathi offered Identify and discuss in terms of the IFAC Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants, which fundamental principles Alfred contravened by accepting the bribe and by ordering the dumping of biomedical wastewater. (3 x 6 = 18 marks)

1.3 Briefly describe what the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility means and mention the three spheres in which Corporate Social Responsibility intends to create value for stakeholders. (4 marks)

1.4 List one way in which Takalani Hospital has been contrary to the Corporate Social Responsibility concept. (1 mark)