Corrupt staff members or officials keep companies under the water gasping for air with devastating effects. Companies drown under the weight of policies and procedures that are ignored and sometimes not fully understood to implement successfully.
“Reduce the likelihood of irresponsible decisions,” says Rudi Kruger, General Manager of LexisNexis Risk Management.
Kruger provides five quick steps to perform before you award the contract:
1. Are they who they say they are?
Implement systems that perform basic background checks quickly and efficiently. Procurement application forms are seldom less than 17 pages and Procurement professionals do not have the time to wade through all these documents.
Add the fact that manual checks take hours of valuable time and the benefit of looking for online systems that can perform a lot of these basic checks for you quickly, and if possible in one go, become clear.
- Is this a legitimist business?
- How long have they been in business?
- Is this their core function?
- In who’s names(s) is this business register?
- Do they have a valid Vat number?
- Do they have a tax clearance certificate?
- Is this the same bad boys with a new name?
2. Price
Do you know what you are paying for? Was the price negotiated and by whom? Is the price you are paying for these items in line with general costs of such an item or service in the market? Are these recurring costs and what are the terms and conditions?
3. Contract
Is there a formal contract in place for this service or good? Are you able to meet the conditions of their contracts and can they meet yours?
4. In the news / court
Do you have access to a news source where you can quickly see all the news about this company. Is there some negative publicity that will warn you about their behavior? Are they constantly in court for not honouring contracts?
5. Have an interview
Is it possible to have an interview with your supplier? A quick conversation with your supplier will quickly identify if this person can do the job or deliver the service.
There are a number of online vetting products in the market providing background screening solutions for both vendors and employees. LexisNexis Risk Management offers RefCheck Advanced for employee screening; ProcureCheck for assisting with procurement vetting of vendors and employees; and LexisDiligence for all global due diligence and legislative compliance.
LexisNexis has assisted various Government and Corporate entities with the necessary tools and processes to assist them staying ahead of the curve.
