QUESTION 1

BUSINESS CASE: THIS IS BUSINESS

In recent years, because of the Public Procurement Act, District Assemblies have been given the authority to award contracts on certain projects, which do not cost more than 150 million cedis. In view of this, at the District where I work, the Assembly was to construct three markets, at 150 million cedis per project. However, the law is that before such contracts are awarded, they should be made known to the general public by advertising in any of the local newspapers. Therefore, these three market projects were subsequently put on tender through publication in one of the Ghanaian daily newspapers.

One week after the advertisement, I received an Expedited Mail Service (EMS) letter, inviting me to Accra to meet a man I did not know for an important message at a particular date. Initially I did not want to honour the invitation. However, upon reflection I decided to go and meet the man because I was expecting some important information from a brother who was in the United States. On arriving in Accra, specifically at the mans office in the Kantamanto commercial area, I was told the man was attending a meeting at a nearby office building and had directed that I should wait for him. I met the mans secretary at the office. He served me a bottle of malta guinness.

About twenty minutes later, the man arrived from the meeting and I was introduced to him. Beaming with smiles, he in turn introduced himself by mentioning his name as Mr. Opoku Afriyie. As it was already lunchtime, he suggested that we go to a restaurant for lunch. We found ourselves in a popular restaurant. I was asked to order whatever I wished to eat. But, as I did not know why I was being entertained, I was not at ease. The man kept saying, Oh feel free, you are at home. There was no doubt that he wanted to impress me.

We, finally, drove back to his office. It was then he introduced himself to me as a building contractor and explained why he had invited me to Accra. He told me that he had read the advertisement from my Assembly inviting contractors to bid for the construction of the three markets. He was interested, he continued. He went on to say that, at a meeting somewhere, a friend told him to contact me because I was the schedule officer for those projects, he would be grateful and he was prepared to offer something. He ended by saying: My brother, this is business that we are talking of. Here is 10,000.00 and 2 packets of roofing sheets. I want you to tell me the bill of quantities and estimated quotations from your consultants, and also quotations from other bidders.

In fact, I was flabbergasted and surprised to hear that. For five minutes, I was quiet and the man was doing all the talking. First, I needed six hundred cedis to pay my younger sisters school fees. Second, I needed about one packet of aluminum roofing sheets to renovate my parents building. However, because it was difficult to say no to him and at the same time, I did not want to accept the offer, I politely suggested to the man to submit his completed contract document, telling him that his chances of winning were high, as at the time nobody had come for any of the contract forms. He was persistent and was prepared to offer an additional 500.00. But I refused to take anything from him. I then asked to leave; he asked his driver to take me to the State Transport Yard to take a bus back. He gave me 500.00 to pay for my transport fare, which I took.

i. What kind of person would respond to a letter of invitation from an unknown person the way the man did? (3 Marks)

ii. Under what ethical theory will you classify the officers action?

iii. Are there times when it is better to be tactful than honest?

iv. Would you have taken the 500, 00 as transport fare, explain?

v. What does the term this is Business mean in the passage?

(3 Marks) (3 Marks) (3 Marks) (3 Marks)

vi. Describe the ethics of Mr. Opoku Afriyie (2 Marks)

vii. What do you understand by the term ethical dilemma? (3 Marks)

viii. Besides this case, mention three other ethical issues that public officials encounter in their daily work

life (3 Marks)

ix. Mention four (4) importance of values to you as an individual or the District Assembly you work with.

(4 Marks)

x. Discuss the Blanchard and Pearls model of resolving ethical dilemmas