Setup

You are employed as a purchaser with the regions Public Health and Emergency Services, tasked with acquiring the various personal protective equipment (PPE) needed to provide services. Due to a recent contagious viral outbreak, you need to dramatically increase the number of certain products (masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, etc) being purchased and the companies that you usually deal with are unable to meet your new needs. So, you have set about looking for new suppliers.

One new start-up company approaches you offering to sell you the much-needed medical supplies. You meet with the two young owners and they give a very impressive presentation and seem like they might be just the company you have been looking for. However, their prices seem quite high, and you have some doubts about their ability to follow through on their promises. You ask around to some of your contacts who do similar work and very few people seem to have heard of this new company or bought product from them. One colleague in particular had doubts about the quality of the products being sold.

You raised these concerns with your manager, but their priority is getting the products needed and thinks that it is worth the risk to try out this new company. So you sign a contract with them to purchase medical supplies in the coming months.

Current Dilemma

After a few months of dealing with a new medical supplies company, many of your suspicions have been justified and you are very unhappy with the situation. In addition to charging extremely high prices for their product, the company is also frequently late with deliveries, and you are getting reports from employees that the products that are delivered are not of the expected quality. The gloves tear easily, the filters in the masks are not fine enough to trap the virus particles, and the hand sanitizer turns out to be mostly water.

When you bring these concerns to your manager, they think that you are overreacting. They argue that prices are high everywhere right now and that you should be patient with the new companys shortcomings. Your manager does not want the bad publicity of cancelling contracts in the middle of a crisis and risk worrying the public. They advise that you maintain the current situation.

You are frustrated by this response because you believe that there is a very real risk to public health due to shortages and inferior products. Further, it is not right for a company to be taking advantage of a bad situation to make a quick buck. You want to do something to make the situation right but are unsure what to do next. You are thinking of becoming a whistleblower. What should you do next and what are some important considerations to take into account as you plan your next steps?

Questions:

1. Identify the Stakeholders

2. Determine the Facts

3. Determine the ethical issues

4. Identify values (for relevant stakeholders)

5. Specify the alternatives

6. compare alternatives