Business

Question 3

Procurement refers to the acquisition of goods and services by public institutions in a country, and concerns contracts between the government and the private in many different areas such as health services, the military and construction. Reliable procurement practices will transform funds into hospitals, schools and roads. Procurement accounts for such a large part of public resources it is important that the procurement process occurs in an accountable, transparent and well-managed manner.

Some of the causes to engage in corruption that ultimately leads to the disruption of the procurement process can be attributable to structural and individualistic origins.

The structural causes are related to the changes in the political systems and/or cultural changes whilst the individualistic changes are related to an individual when one engages in corrupt behaviour that questions one's authority, capability, incentives and these incentives that lead to corruption depends on the procurement officer' professional integrity and lack of monitoring, supervision and sanctions.

Some of the red flags in the procurement process include:

* Sudden purchases of unnecessary and inappropriate items

This together with the offering of money( bribery) to influence the choice of goods and services to be purchased, this will has am influence on the allocation of resources and benefits.

* Manipulation of procurement thresholds

This involves the manipulation of information purely for personal gain.

* Inadequate evaluation criteria or procedures

In procurement corruption takes place with failure to meet specifications however with inadequate evaluation this can be very difficult to evaluate.

* Contract specifications are too narrow, ambiguous, incomplete and misleading.

* A legal framework must be put in place but these specifications should be clear and complete without this the contract can result in lack unaccountable behaviour.

Furthermore, the risks that lead to the kickbacks in the procurement process are:

Extortion this involves causing harm to an individual or exploitations to obtain information and Embezzlement stealing funds that should be directed to the effective functioning of the procurement process.

Bribery- Bribes can influence outcomes of legal and regulatory processes, as well as influence the allocation of benefits such as pensions, subsidies and taxes.

Lack of transparency- This can lead to lack of clarity when it comes to the choices on the procurement procedures used. Lack of transparency can also lead to unclear evaluation criteria.

Mismanagement- Another problem may be that management may not be well trained to plan and budget and thus this may lead to disruptions in the process with the accountability and control mechanisms.

Some of the areas that create opportunities for these kickbacks are the:

The dimension of the contract- The larger the contract, the higher the risks of individuals taking advantage during the stages of the process.

The type of the sector- Some sectors are more prone to corruption than others.

Technology levels- High levels of technology may result in the detection of corruption but may also be used for corruption.

Thus a starting point for the alleviation of the kickbacks in the procurement process would be to look into the management, transparency, accountability and control of the procurement process.

Question 4

Combating Cyber Crime with an effective corporate culture

Cyber crime in organisation should be minimised as cyber criminals can hijack unsecured computers and use to attack online businesses. With cyber crime a there are bad guys that are intelligent and moreover have a lot of resources to commit these crimes and the type of attacks are more sophisticated as the technologies out there are more sophisticated and this will continue to be a problem and so the best organisations should do is spend money and time to think of ways to create a culture that will toughen the barriers of entry for these thieves.

Organisations should build a culture of awareness of cyber security

As there