If you ask directly whether you paid kickbacks, you will almost always hear a firm "no". Only a few admit that they shared with the customer. General meaning The responses of the interviewed top managers come down to the fact that "I don't give, but others pay." But in reality, this practice is flourishing: last year a sad record was set - the percentage of kickbacks in the IT market reached a record 40% of the contract amount. The business community is divided into those who consider kickbacks to be a necessary evil, which is easier to accept than to fight, and those who observe incorruptibility, at least in words.
Pain Remedy
"In some areas - this also applies to IT - there are standards and traditional procedures that imply a rollback as the norm. If you refuse, they are usually very surprised," lamented Alexander Moskvin, vice president for IT at Mechel. an illusion that one day Russia will stop stealing. You can only minimize the damage." He is sure that the “wrong equipment” bought honestly for the business will do more harm than the right one, but bought through a rollback.
An anonymous "voice from the community" also notes that "they are paying, and they will pay. A rollback is like a byte equal to 8 bits. If the project is checked by experts in "kickback protection", it means only one thing - they are also in the share. " He is convinced that checking any purchased computer and printer will show that the bill is "drawn as it should." "Yes, the price of hardware will be average, and everyone will be happy. But on software will earn. If soft is not Windows, but "self-written", then it is possible to "roll back" 50% from official price in the price list. Just to buy. It is impossible to check the cost, the product is original," our interlocutor explains.
Anatoly Stepansky, commercial director of Impact-Soft, does not consider kickbacks to be the norm in the IT market. He claims that in the 14 years of the existence of the business, he has encountered such a practice only once. When concluding the contract, the representative of the state customer put the company before the fact that he should receive part of the amount to another account. "Of all the 200 projects we have implemented, this was the only case. We work mainly with private companies and prefer to communicate directly with their owners, so there is no question of kickbacks. The owner can ask for a discount, which we, of course, give" Stepansky says. According to his deep conviction, the practice of kickbacks is vicious: "If you do it once, you will depend on it all your life." In addition, in his opinion, this will create additional problems, since business owners may face petty extortion from their own employees who promote the kickback project.
Evgeny Sizov, head of the IT department of the Svyaznoy group of companies, believes that the most important thing is to remove the main customer from the procurement process. Then conduct research on equipment markets and determine average market prices. And in the end, announce an absolutely open tender, choosing participants from the list, which was formed by independent experts. Sizov clarifies that the study of transactions for price deviations from the average market is most revealing: "Where there are such deviations, as a rule, there is a rollback. And we are talking about the established relationship between the seller and the buyer." At the same time, in his opinion, one should not try to convict a particular employee of uncleanliness. Since it is almost impossible to prove the fact of collusion between the seller and the buyer. "You can only talk about distrust. I knew for sure that a particular employee received a kickback, but there was no evidence in this regard. However, from personal practice I can say that one meeting recently took place at which they tried to offer me a kickback. But I preferred to get a discount on the services provided," Sizov explained. He adds that in the face of falling profitability of the IT equipment and services market, as well as increasing salaries, it is worth seriously considering whether to risk your future by getting involved in rollback schemes for momentary gain.
SPb CIO Club President Maxim Belousov, in turn, believes that it is impossible to protect yourself from kickbacks, since the work of almost all commercial departments of IT companies is based on this. “I note that bribery in Russia is a pain for the nation as a whole,” Belousov states not without sadness. But, in his opinion, it is possible to make sure that companies do not lose either money or the quality of the resulting product. A top manager should not set himself the goal of catching someone in fraud: transaction schemes are becoming more intricate, and it is becoming more and more difficult to catch a corrupt subordinate red-handed. It is much more important to adequately fulfill the task of the business to provide an IT service. Belousov’s kickback code is very concise, it consists of only three points: “Firstly, I don’t care if an employee takes a kickback or not, the main thing is that my company receives a product or service with necessary quality and acceptable cost. For me, this is at the level of market prices. Secondly, the cost of a product or service may be more, but at the same time, I must understand that the company receives something additional or exclusive. For example, a deferred payment, a reduction in delivery times, or a message that "gray" equipment is being delivered under the contract. And thirdly, each employee must be warned when hiring that if he is convicted of violating financial discipline, he will be fired within one day.
In the contract with the head of the IT service or the employee responsible for procurement, Belousov believes, there should be a record of financial discipline and measures that can be taken for its violation, up to and including dismissal. "Unfortunately, now kickback schemes are so veiled that even special government bodies they cannot “unwind” them, let alone prove their existence,” he summed up. You don't want to risk your job for extra income.
"I personally caught kickback lovers several times by the hand. If a person does this carefully, then it is almost impossible to catch him. It turns out to be done when the employee is already relaxing and begins to" burrow ". As a rule, companies do not start legal cases, do not advertise such cases, but prefer to deal with it themselves with the help of the internal security service," notes Mechel's Vice President for IT. According to Alexander Moskvin, one of the methods to reduce losses on kickbacks in companies with a geographically distributed structure can be centralized purchases of equipment: "As experience shows, this reduces costs by 5-10%." It can be assumed that the savings are achieved due to the increased volume of purchases. But, in Moskvin's view, this is largely due to the reduction in kickbacks. This method does not eliminate theft, but reduces the risks for the enterprise.
Maxim Belousov believes that continuous monitoring of the IT market can reduce rollback risks. The frequency of this study, in his opinion, should be at least once a year if there is a permanent supplier, or more often if there are several. Monitoring is also required when making high-value purchases (in many companies, these include purchases worth $5,000 - $10,000). The monitoring results should be compared with the last issued invoice, which will allow drawing conclusions about the correctness of the supplier's work. "I note that it is the supplier, not the IT service! In most cases, the problem is not the amount of rollback, which raises the purchase price above the market price, but the pricing of the supplier itself and / or poor elaboration of this issue on the part of the IT service employees," – summarizes the president of the SPb CIO Club.
Don't trust blindly
Formal procedures for conducting tenders are quite clearly regulated by the norms of federal legislation, which are mandatory for government customers, and by corporate codes that are in force in all large companies. Therefore, the first and most important way to protect against kickbacks, according to Vladislav Sorokin, a leading specialist in the management consulting department of IKT-Consult CJSC, is a clear and detailed statement of the task in the tender documentation. "I recommend ordering the development of tender documentation, in any case, its technical part, from an experienced consultant. In principle, it would be logical to exclude the situation in which the developer of the technical specifications then becomes the system designer. However, I do not think that this recommendation should be taken as an absolute - if the customer I liked how and what the terms of reference were developed, why not allow this developer to participate in the design competition," says Vladislav Sorokin. A well-thought-out methodology for evaluating received bids - the second important point. A representative of IKT-Consulting notes that at the stage of selling a service, IT consultants are usually much more active than during the implementation of a project. Therefore, when preparing a decision on concluding a contract for the design and implementation of IS, special attention should be paid to those aspects of the contestant's activity that are not related to the sales process, but will "come to the fore" after the start of work. “Other things being equal, I recommend giving preference to IT consultants who have been in the industry for a long time and about whom you can get feedback from their previous clients. If you can’t get a clear positive feedback about the consultant in the business environment, it’s better not to deal with him,” – says Sorokin.
“The success of any tender,” Andrey Aranovich, Head of ISG Integrated Integration, agrees with colleagues, “is in the quality of the development technical requirements and specifications. The better these documents are worked out, the more understandable the proposals of the participants will be. general issues vague and general answers will be received. Currently, an increasing number of enterprises and organizations resort to the services of outsourcing companies, which, on the instructions of the customer, prepare the necessary package of documents for the tender, form preliminary lists of participants, develop a system for evaluating proposals and, if necessary, hold a tender. "For any tender, it is important to have a clear and transparent system for evaluating proposals according to formal criteria. The more detailed the evaluation system and the set of criteria are, the easier it is to evaluate the results of the tender and accept the right decision", - says Andrey Aranovich. In his opinion, it is important to get an idea of the capabilities and experience of the tender participants. He considers pilot projects to be the most effective approach to identifying and evaluating contestants, which allow assessing the ability of tender participants to solve specific customer tasks, as well as objectively compare the received results.
"Do not blindly trust the conduct of the tender to professional" independent consultants ", - objected Anatoly Stepansky from Impact-Soft. - Very often they simply promote a supplier friendly to them. In my practice, there have been cases when "independent consultants" tried to agree on commissions in advance immediately with multiple bidders. Don't trust, he says, comparing offers against very long checklists. He recalls that one such company of "independent consultants" sent out questionnaires with more than 500 questions. "Answers to them - "yes" or "no" - practically do not provide information, but they allow you to simulate violent activity and promote any solution that is beneficial to the "independent consultant," Stepansky is convinced. When considering offers, take the time to go on a tour of those companies where the supplier has already carried out projects similar to yours. A reputable supplier will always help you arrange such meetings and provide contact information.
Be careful with the analysis of the price offer. A number of suppliers build contracts this way, Stepansky warns, giving the impression of a low price. But after the start of work, it may turn out that the project budget should be doubled. It is worth talking about such moments with other customers of the supplier. And also pay attention to the reputation and duration of the supplier in the market. For a serious firm, the failure of your project will result in much greater reputational problems than penalties. She will strive successful completion project, and this is beneficial to you in the first place. It is desirable, advises Maxim Belousov, that the company has a narrow circle of suppliers who have passed the tender and concluded a strategic contract for the supply of goods and services. Moreover, the decision should be made at the level of the company's management with the assistance (audit) of the financial service and the security service, if any. At the same time, any price change in subsequent deliveries, the president of the SPb CIO Club points out, must be recorded in writing and personally agreed with the management.
Once every six months, given the rapid development of the IT market, it is necessary to hold mini-competitions for the supply of goods and services. Thus, existing suppliers can give discounts and other bonuses in order to retain a customer. Thus, Belousov is convinced, companies are put in a position where they have no money left for kickbacks.
Transparency of the entire buying process is the most important condition for combating kickbacks, Alexander Moskvin agrees. There should be precise procedures that clearly spell out who, when and what decisions were made. Moreover, according to him, the history of the entire process must be preserved. Only then will people be stopped by the fear of being caught. There are a lot of technical tools for this, but this, in his opinion, is not a panacea. "It is important that one responsible person signs the decision. Competition commissions are, as a rule, a way to smear responsibility. If there are 12 signatures on paper, then no one is to blame individually. But Russian companies are always "monarchist", with a strict hierarchy, therefore, only one person makes the final decision," Moskvin sums up.
Non-traditional methods of treatment
The experience of Western companies in the fight against kickbacks is different. There, the purchase of IT equipment is often carried out by specially created corporate supply departments, which are controlled by the company's security service. As a rule, people who enjoy the trust of the leadership are selected there. But even with such strict control, the IT service can only place an order, in other words, recommend this or that vendor, since it is deprived of the right to choose the equipment supplier.
But Alexander Moskvin does not believe in the effectiveness of such rules in Russia, wondering: “For some reason, in some companies, everyone has a submachine gunner behind their back, and they still steal. And in others, there is a weak security system, but no one is talking about kickbacks thinks." This, no matter how trite, he answers, depends on the atmosphere in the company. "It happens that people do not see the point in their actions for the good of the company. For example, a person can talk for a long time that a certain solution is good for the whole business, but no one needs it. This attitude of people is very demotivating. There were cases when for such deafness of management, the employee began to take kickbacks. And if the company really has a team rooting for a common cause, then they won’t even have such thoughts.” When employees are given to understand their importance and usefulness, Moskvin is sure, then another motivation arises, not entirely material.
According to Businessman magazine -
In the work it is necessary to place the main emphasis on the fight against kickbacks. After all, everyone knows that kickbacks, called in legal language "bribe" or commercial bribery, are a brake on the development of any business. In addition, those involved in these “dirty dealings” expose themselves and others to criminal prosecution.
Bribes are taken for everything, from the organization of work to simply the conscientious performance of one's duties. Almost every clerk in the chain of approvals and permits is trying to profit at your expense.
Kickbacks, if we talk about enterprises and the service sector, can be both one-time and regular:
Developed different ways rollback offers:
"Professional" buyers manage to first drop the purchase prices, and then throw a surcharge on top of the price list, while getting "two in one". With this action, the entire resulting difference falls into the pocket of the purchaser. To move the deal forward, everything is discussed next steps. This is the calculation of the amount of a rollback or the percentage received on hand, the timing of the receipt of money, transfer schemes.
The company's own security service is not always able to identify fraudsters, it is very difficult to track down and catch thieves red-handed. An experienced manager in such a case will immediately suspect a “trick”. Hearing a hint or an “interesting” offer, he will try to divert the conversation from the workplace, guided by several motives:
- the office and workplace can be equipped with cameras and "wiretapping";
- the conversation may have witnesses or be interrupted by working moments;
— psychological impact workplace.
The employee tries to turn the conversation into an informal setting, to take the interlocutor, for example, to a “smoking room” or outside the enterprise (cafe, restaurant), where this issue will be resolved based on the “interests” of the manager himself.
The task of our organization, participating in such transactions, is to identify interested parties, employees of the enterprise, whose interests pursue personal benefit when concluding an agreement, and transfer the recorded information to the management of your enterprise.
Our advantage lies in the fact that all stages of negotiations from start to finish will be held in the presence of our employees. In this case, our negotiators do not seek to receive any benefits for themselves personally, but carry out a deal within the framework of contractual obligations, while simultaneously receiving information about the "good faith" of the future partner. The results of the negotiations are provided to the customer in the form of an audio recording.
We did not think long before deciding to write this article. The occasion was a conversation with a young, but very smart buyer, who proudly declared that he would never quit his job, because. his position is a great place for "extra income".
Yes, many take kickbacks, and in the process of writing the article, we even found that on the pages of one popular magazine in the business environment, the technology for receiving and giving a bribe was described in detail; and this article is used increased attention readers.
Let's call everything by its proper name: a kickback is a bribe; it’s just that the word “bribe” is really bad, and “kickback” seems to be almost not a bribe, and so ... a bonus, a bonus. Nearly good word legalized in commercial structures. We do not mean professional bonuses received from the supplier openly. Such bonuses are received by the company under the terms of the agreement, and they are sent directly to the budget. Let's talk about kickbacks - about what the buyer puts in his pocket, bypassing all official payments and contracts.
Supply and demand: market law
I would like to talk about the ethical side of the matter - recalling common truths. It seems to us that in the business of giving a bribe, demand determines supply. Demand by an employee of a retail company for other people's money, the money of a supplier or manufacturer. “I don’t know, I don’t know…” says such a buyer. “Your conditions are certainly attractive, but… they won’t pat me on the head for this… I’ll have to settle the issue with my boss…”. The supplier quickly enough guesses what is hidden behind the buyer's hesitation. And it reacts "correctly" - satisfies the demand for additional illegal earnings. And then the news quickly spreads among the suppliers that it is necessary to work with the purchaser Vasya Pupkin on the terms of a "mutually beneficial agreement."
A simple market mechanism works: if there is demand, there will be supply. The offer will always be - at least in order to follow the path of least resistance. Why sit down at the negotiating table, waste time, make efforts to find a joint solution, when the easiest way is to pay Pupkin.
When we talk about ways to deal with kickbacks, how to catch and expose dishonest buyers, and what preventive measures What must be done to combat this evil, we are struggling with the consequences. And the reason is different - it's a thirst for "easy" money and a lack of self-respect.
The supply will become completely meaningless only if the demand itself is absent.
Those who don't take
Having worked for 12 years in procurement and starting from the position of a junior manager, I have had the opportunity to make sure that there are a lot of buyers (and not only them) who DO NOT TAKE. Under no pretext. No amount. Not in any way. Despite what they offer. I have personally been offered bribes and kickbacks ranging from $100 to $3,500. The thought of taking any amount never arose - just because? that once and for all I decided this question for myself. And many of my colleagues and acquaintances, my friends and relatives do the same - neither the amount nor the form of "gratitude" matters. For me, confirmation of this position was a case that I would like to cite.
Recently, my car was in an accident. After some time, the insurance company invited a specialist in the assessment of damage to the car to reimburse the required amount of repairs. The damage, I must say, was very decent, and there were enough hidden damages in the car. These damages could be seen only with a detailed inspection of the bottom. I was worried that the appraiser would not want to look carefully, crawl under a car with a flashlight and so on ... so I immediately offered him the nth amount so that he would record all the damage that I would indicate to him. I didn’t need too much, it was important for me that he didn’t miss anything. Basically, I offered him a bribe to just do a good job.
This man silently shook his head, then replied: "No. I do not practice it. I will inspect your car on a general basis," and calmly set to work. He really looked at everything carefully, and was objective and accurate. Nothing extra, but nothing was missed either. I was filled with deep respect for this man, so his position was close and understandable to me. He respects himself first and foremost. HE DOES NOT TAKE. In doing their job, so do my husband and my friends and, hopefully, the vast majority of other people.
You can call it honesty. This is probably the best word for this position. You can’t be half honest: I take from some, but I don’t take from others. Or just take large sums, and small ones - no, no, by no means. I'm honest before lunch, and after lunch - in an envelope, please. We'll call it an honor. Honesty and honor are the same root words and very close concepts. Honor is either there or it isn't.
It probably makes no sense to try to change those who are already taking. Most likely, understanding of one's honor and respect for oneself does not come from the pages of a magazine and not after one article. But I'm absolutely sure that you can not to do the first step towards bribery. It's simple. Just do not take it ever and under no pretext.
But it's also difficult, because the temptation always exists.
Those who take
Probably, every buyer sooner or later faces the possibility of commercial bribery in one form or another. Whoever brings it in an envelope, someone talks about "mutually beneficial cooperation", and some even send out letters with a veiled offer of a kickback under the guise of a "special incentive program" and a "personal bonus", thereby a priori putting everyone who works in this company into list of bribe-takers. For some, bank accounts are opened, which are regularly replenished with each order. Someone brings greyhound puppies. But it is necessary to understand - in whatever form such proposals are received, the essence of this does not change. This is a bribe, in other words, "acceptance by an official personally or through intermediaries of any material values (objects, money) or the acquisition of any property benefit for performing or not performing in the interests of the action that gave the bribe ..."
The most important thing to remember is that when you receive a bribe, a kickback, a bribe (call it whatever you like, everything will be correct), you always act in the interests of the one who gave this bribe. In fact, this is just an act of buying and selling, and the amount of the fee is often simply ridiculous. There was a young man working for a company I knew who was neatly getting $50 a month from a supplier for overstocking. When they began to understand the reasons for the significant non-liquidity in its part of the assortment, this fact became clear. The buyer himself called it a "personal extra-bonus". It was also revealed that the manager himself does not see anything wrong with this. "I don't steal!" he explained, "this is not at the expense of the company, but at the expense of the supplier!"
This manager is generally good man. He is an excellent family man, affectionately attached to his wife and child, the soul of the company, a cheerful and open guy, always ready to help, reads a lot and has a good education. But can you call him an honest person?
Of course, the supplier pays, not the company. But the company incurs losses for purchasing the wrong product or the wrong quantity of this product. The manager personally may not steal, but his activities, organized in this way, do not allow optimizing the assortment, as it draws on the working capital of the entire company. And this is the least of many evils.
Once bought, such a purchaser can no longer pursue his claims from the supplier. In fact, he ceases to do his job, for which he is paid a salary - what can a person decide who is obliged to pursue a policy of bribery? And if there are many such "givers", then everyone should be pleased... Reminds me of a professionally working priestess of love. It's a bad comparison, but it's the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the words "you've been bought."
A certain manufacturer thus "bought" one of the commercial representatives, famous for his bribery. The manufacturer, whose interests this young man was pushing, during the negotiations sent him to the kitchen for mineral water: "You go, my friend, bring us some water. We will agree here, we will tell you later. You will sign the contract after." He was treated like a servant. What kind of professionalism and respect can we talk about? Taking a bribe, the purchaser simply cannot make decisions on his own - now they decide for him what to supply and at what prices. The buyer is no longer a responsible person, but only an executor of someone's interests. And it's good if these interests do not contradict the general goals of the company. For the time being…
If the buyer does not respect the company in which he works, then you should at least think about the consequences of taking bribes. From quiet blackmail, “Well, you don’t want your bosses to know about your bonuses?”, To criminal liability, to which your employer can bring you. And it's a paradox - but it's a fact - almost everyone on the market knows about those who take it. Although by hook or by crook a professional hauler hides the essence of his relationship with suppliers, sooner or later the truth becomes known.
If the fear of publicity is not an argument for the hauler ("And you prove it!"), then let's pay attention to the fact that getting a kickback is the basis for manipulation. Once the white envelope has moved into the hands of the buyer, the manager can be manipulated. Simply put, to force him to do what he was not going to do. Because every person knows from childhood that stealing is not good. Taking someone else's is not good. Taking bribes is not good. And be that as it may, hiding behind clever phrases such as "The end justifies the means", "To live with wolves - howl like a wolf", "Who is not without sin ...", "Why is it possible for one, but not for me?" and so on, we are only looking for excuses for our own greed. And the supplier gets the right to manipulate a person, playing on his guilt and conscience: “Well, you don’t work for thanks ... We are doing the same thing, we now have common interests ...”.
It is important to understand one more thing: at least two people know about rollback money - the one who gave and the one who took. And then - the data on the paid bonuses are entered into the tables of the supplier and no one knows at what point this information will become available to the entire market. The news that Vasya Pupkin takes is quickly becoming known to many - both to Pupkin's colleagues and other suppliers. No need to be modest and console yourself with the hope that no one will find out. There is no faster and more reliable source of information than word of mouth - and now colleagues are already whispering to each other: "Pupkin .. well, I understand ... That's what I look at - I bought a car, building a dacha ... now it's clear why so much nonsense is being brought to us ..." . And here it is not even a question that "this still needs to be proven." The question is self-respect - you will have to prove to yourself, first of all, the right to honestly look people in the eye.
How much does a rollback cost?
However, money is money. There is a famous saying: "money doesn't smell". Is it so?
I will quote the dialogues of a certain forum in one professional Internet community. The topic for discussion was the phrase of one of the forum participants, who openly stated: "I supply equipment and Consumables for ***. I VERY well reward buyers. "It is noteworthy that almost no one turned to this ad (according to the applicant himself, only 2.3% of those who viewed the topic turned to him), but many expressed their attitude to kickbacks and bribes.
Here are examples of the most striking statements:
"I agree with the opinion that kickbacks are an integral part of the business and, in general, their existence does not depend on the salary, but on the worldview of the buyers. Phrases such as "the end justifies the means" are life position certain person…" Mone
"In general, if you want to take kickbacks, if you don't want to take it! It's your business, you are responsible for your actions! Be responsible!" Any
"So do not hide behind slogans about social justice, speak directly: I WANT MORE MONEY THAN I CAN EARN!
I'm not judging, each of us has our own road to hell, just let's at least be honest on this road." Director
"... kickbacks are taken by unskilled people who accidentally got into these vacancies, with low self-esteem, who were not taken in companies with big salary, and who, according to the old Soviet psychology, are trying to snatch something at their workplace, instead of studying and improving their skills, thereby increasing their value in the labor market. " Sergey
You can take and sit quietly in a lured place. To make a career. Buy a car, and especially lucky ones who have found a gold mine in the face of large and accommodating suppliers - even an apartment. Material wealth is great. What about reputation? What about the name? And the ability to make decisions yourself - and your own decisions, those that you can justify, and you won’t shrug your shoulders, bashfully lowering your eyes.
Look straight into people's eyes. Sleep at night. Know that your conscience is clear. The right to say "no, I don't practice it." How much is it? How much does a reputation, a name, an opportunity to honestly build a career and relationships with your partners cost?
Greed is a vice, and this vice very quickly becomes visible in a professional hauler. Bribery is always written on the face.
Outcome
Those who expected in this article to receive any practical advice or a typology of kickbacks will be disappointed.
I am sure that if you wish, you can easily find such articles. We just wanted to recall simple truths and talk about the ethical side of the issue. Someone must be talking about it.
The practical advice we would like to give you is one: Do not take. It's as simple as not taking it. Much easier than making up excuses for yourself in the form of children bloated with hunger and your own close starvation. It's easier than being afraid that the authorities will find out, easier than looking back at the whispers of colleagues.
Before the hand itself takes the white unmarked envelope, think about it.
© Ekaterina Buzukova, buyer with 12 years of experience
| Name of the seminar, training, course | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | sen | Oct | But I | Dec | Price, rub. |
Before starting, I want to say that now we will talk about criminals and dishonorable people who are found in budgetary organizations. However, not all state employees take bribes and think about cashing in on own people. Most state employees are decent and responsible people. But, as they say, "in a partisan detachment there is not without a traitor." It is precisely these traitors that will be discussed in this article.
So, what kind of "beast" is this - rollback? Let's go in order.
So, you already know that the state employee in all his actions is guided by prescriptions and instructions. Some even make sounds in the toilet in those keys and notes that they are allowed by the instructions for using the toilet in control. Therefore, of course, state employees carry out purchases only strictly according to instructions. And the main criterion in the implementation of procurement, for the state employee is the price of the purchased goods. It is the price, not the quality or some other mythical criteria. Why is that? And the thing is that any budgetary organization is financed from the budget of its country. And budget money is allegedly the money of the people. And people's money must be spent sparingly and carefully. Therefore, the instructions clearly state that when deciding on the purchase of goods (services) from a particular organization, a state employee must make a choice in favor of the proposal with the lowest price. And this is, in principle, reasonable. For the state employee is a bonded and timid bird, so he is used to always rushing to extremes. And if you write in the instructions, something like: “State employee, remember that the miser pays twice! Don't buy cheap substandard goods, and buy a little more expensive, but high quality! So, if you give him such an instruction, then he will then start buying unrealistically expensive goods, most likely of the same quality as cheap ones. Therefore, in the instructions, they decided to throw the state employee to the other extreme - minimizing their costs to the detriment of the quality of purchased goods.
In general, every conscientious state employee strives to treat the "people's penny" economically and carefully, and therefore purchases all goods at exclusively the most low prices. After all, a state employee is a servant of the people, which means that, of course, he must protect his master's money.
But mentality is a powerful thing. The mentality is passed down from generation to generation, the nursing state employee sucks it up with mother's milk, he inhales it with the air of his country, so in spite of everything, some state employees become slaves of their mentality. They walk along long corridors his control, looking around with apprehension. They clearly follow every point of the instructions written for them. But they still think about only one thing every minute - how to steal some budget money. Therefore, by by and large, such state employees do not care about the price of the purchased goods. But they don't give a damn about instructions. They set themselves the goal of: receiving kickbacks without violating instructions. As they say, in order to cover your ass, and "bite off a piece of the people's pie." For clarity, let's consider the situation that I told you about in.
So, in terms of prices, our offer was more favorable than the offer of a competing company. If you follow the logic and instructions, then you need to purchase goods from us. But there is another point. The offer of competitors "fit" into all the limits allocated to the state employee for the purchase of chairs, therefore, the state employee has the right to buy goods from competitors. This raises a logical question: “Why should he buy goods from competitors if they offer prices 10% higher than ours?” Let's look at two situations here:
It is clear that people's money you have to spend more, but the difference will go to getting a rollback. By the way, do you know what a rollback is?
Rollback is the amount of money that the firm pays out responsible person, as a reward for cooperation with this firm.
To put it more simply, kickback is a common bribe for the giving and receiving of which criminal liability is provided. Kickback is a criminal offense for which you can get a real prison term.
In general, I personally do not recommend you to mess with kickbacks. After all, all this is for the time being, and the holiday will not last forever. There will come a time when your scrotum will be in strong hands the tax inspector or some other fan of tickling entrepreneurial balls. Many may consider me a cowardly entrepreneur. Like, everyone around gives and takes bribes. Like, it's all right. You know, if all this was normal, then there would be no periodic “cleansings” and all kinds of operations, such as “ clean hands". Personally, I know a case when one state employee was “caught” on a bribe received from a very good friend, whom he had known for many years and was “one hundred percent” confident in him. In the same way, don't think that if you give instead of taking, then you are the injured party. No, you are also responsible before the law for giving a bribe. And if the state employee to whom you offer a kickback cooperates with law enforcement agencies, then you can quite realistically be “set up” and prosecuted for giving a bribe. So, if money is the most important thing for you, then you can do whatever you want, but just don’t be surprised if you suddenly become an accomplice in a crime “revealingly disclosed” by the internal affairs bodies.
My partner and I made a fundamental decision not to engage in dubious kickback deals. As the saying goes: "Slower you go - you will continue!" Of course, I would like to work in a market where there are no "haulers". But if they are, it means that we need to be stronger and wiser. After all, you won't earn all the money.
Executive directors and members of the boards of directors of Russian companies steal in more than half of the cases (56%), and functional managers are in 2nd place in corporate abuse (24% of cases), a recent study by the audit company KPMG showed. The authors interviewed experts from various departments of KPMG involved in investigating employee economic abuse. The study covered 85 countries of the world, including Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. According to the authors of the survey, abroad top managers and functional managers steal in about the same way (31 and 32% of cases, respectively).
Most often, corporate attackers embezzle company income and assets (46%), distort financial statements (11%), and receive bribes from suppliers and contractors (11%). Every fourth domestic company has lost more than $1 million due to abuse over the past two years, says Inna Fokina, partner in PwC's fraud investigation practice in Russia. According to KPMG, in 71% of cases, fraud is facilitated by weak internal controls in Russian companies. Abroad, this figure is lower - 60%. Employees of all levels admit in surveys that they are involved in theft, because they simply have such an opportunity, explains Ivan Tyagun, head of investigations at KPMG in Russia and the CIS. But Russian employers, unlike their counterparts abroad, are in no hurry to sue thieving employees. More than half of the companies prefer to dismiss them quietly, and every sixth employer (15%), having learned about fraud, does nothing at all, says Fokina.
Directors
According to KPMG, typical scammers are men aged 36 to 45 who have higher education and have worked in a leadership position for more than six years. A high position, trust from the employer and many years of experience allow them to bypass control procedures and for a long time remain undisclosed.
Zelimkhan Suleimanov, founder of the consulting firm PrECA, says that directors sometimes cheat so grossly that only a blind man can fail to notice, especially when it comes to the board of regional subsidiaries. So, the technical director of the plant himself chose suppliers and purchased expensive equipment, but the company did not receive any documents other than invoices and invoices. The director bought old equipment cheaply and had it repainted to look like new. The amount for allegedly new machines was divided between the supplier, technical director and employees technical support servicing the equipment. Technical Director in five years I managed to buy two apartments in Moscow. And it was exposed by a project manager seconded from the headquarters, who accidentally noticed “recently bought” rusty pumps under fresh paint. The stealing director was fired, but he is now working at another enterprise, the expert says.
Suppliers
The leaders in the number of abuses are purchasing departments (22% of cases), finance and accounting departments (20%), and sales departments (14%), according to a KPMG study. Yet many companies lack even basic control procedures in these departments—separation of powers, documented procurement rules, investment controls, says Tyagun. Suleymanov led for 12 years various projects procurement optimization - in X5 Retail Group, Inventive Retail Group, Knauf Insulation, Moet Hennessy, etc. Very common simple circuits, which are not difficult to detect, he says. For example, a procurement organizer (head of a procurement department or a specialized department) negotiates with one or more trusted suppliers (or even creates front suppliers himself). He negotiates his remuneration with them, and then begins to buy goods at inflated prices or manipulates the terms of tenders so that only a trusted supplier can win.
IT departments
Some companies include unnecessary expenses in the project estimates for the purchase of complex IT systems: for building a team, strengthening corporate culture and PR of the project. In the practice of Suleimanov there was a case when major manufacturer consumer goods, at the request of the IT director, budgeted 270 million rubles for the implementation of the IT system, of which 20 million rubles. - to form a project team. “We managed to convince the employer that 20 million rubles. “It’s too much for a team-building event,” he says.
Prevention
Six years ago, Sberbank publicly posted lists of employees dismissed due to loss of confidence (Article 81, paragraph 7 Labor Code), but then stopped publishing lists. The press service of Sberbank explained that now the emphasis is on the prevention and prevention of crimes, and not on public censure of the perpetrators. Per last years the bank has developed many preventive measures, for example, special mathematical algorithms that identify signs of corporate theft, approved a policy for conducting official investigations and compiled a list of positions in which employees can be dismissed due to loss of confidence. The latter measure applies not only to employees who are financially liable, but also to those who have access to client accounts and perform transactions with electronic money, representatives of the bank said.
Meanwhile, banks have come up with many schemes of abuse. For example, loan officers take kickbacks from borrowers who are not suitable for the bank - from people with poor credit history, businesses without collateral, as well as fraudsters who do not intend to return loans at all. Separate category scammers - bail specialists. These employees, when applying for a rollback loan, may overestimate the value of collateral, thus increasing the loan amount. And in case of non-repayment of the loan - to sell the collateral at a lower price, receiving a percentage from a friendly buyer for a good deal. Such employees come across, as a rule, at test purchases, says Ruslan Shatokhin, a former managing director of a large bank.
Integrity Test
Employers should be especially vigilant about candidates for the positions of top managers, buyers, sales specialists, heads of geographically distant branches, notes Tyagun. As the founder says recruitment agency Rabotarestoran Nina Makogon, the frequency of job changes by the candidate is indicative. If the manager does not stay anywhere for more than a year, this is a wake-up call, which should be followed by additional inquiries.
Some companies use fairly strict abuse prevention methods, such as polygraph testing. According to Interfax, since 2012, TNK-BP has been using the polygraph to check employees who make decisions on the choice of contractors and suppliers or influence these decisions. And Severstal has been using the polygraph for 12 years.
As follows from the presentation of Severstal, all employees of the Cherepovets Iron and Steel Works - from workers to top managers - undergo a polygraph test once every 1.5–2 years. But there is a result: in 2014, according to the presentation, 45 employees involved in the purchase of one of the types of raw materials at the Cherepovets Iron and Steel Works went through a lie detector. In 2013, 75% of buyers were involved in corrupt activities, and in 2014 - only 22% due to a comprehensive project to combat theft of personnel at Severstal, the company's presentation says.
