Question

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 man’s 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 man’s 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 sister’s 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?
ii. Under what ethical theory will you classify the officer’s 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?
vi. Describe the ethics of Mr. Opoku Afriyie
vii. What do you understand by the term ethical dilemma?
viii. Besides this case, mention three other ethical issues that public officials encounter in their daily work
life
ix. Mention four (4) importance of values to you as an individual or the District Assembly you work with.

x. Discuss the Blanchard and Pearl’s model of resolving ethical dilemmas

Answer 1

I. A person simply like the officer who is maintaining a business and needs making a contract with a person would certainly respond to a letter from an unknown person as it is because in the field of business, everybody is pursuing profit. So for a smooth running o the business, a person who is completely engaged with the business will certainly respond to the kind of letter to understand more from it.

ii. The ethical theory that can be related with the officer's action may be the moral theory wherein the theory assists with understanding what is good and bad and these theories teach the individuals to understand that an actions are off-base regardless of whether those actions bring great result.

iii. Indeed, there happen times frequently when a person needs to act tactfully far superior to being straightforward. As a part of business a person ought to have an aptitude in speaking right things at the perfect time and this will brings about facing a reactions as well. Making own supposition and standing on it under any circumstances is always important.

iv. No, I wont accept the offer which he had made for as a transport expense. This is because the man had called for having a conversation relating to a contract in a business and at when the conversation is over , its better to leave the place without accepting any offer from him as it is a part of business offering any thing thusly of having a favorable situation from the side of offeree and if accepting the offer and doesnot giving a favorable result it will brings about break in a relationship which may affect the business badly.

v. The term 'this is business' in this entry implies that the bidder needed to give a message to the officer in a roundabout way that whatever he will offer to the officer or the terms he will put before him ought to be taken as a typical and ethical business practice and considered by the officer under business terms as opposed to thinking about it literally or discovering it something incorrectly or unethical.

vi. Opoku Afriyie was utilizing unethical approaches to get the data of the offering procedure and the citations being offered by different specialists and bidders with the goal that he can offer the most noteworthy and win the offer to get the agreement. He rewarded the officer in a unique way by facilitating him lunch and dazzling him in different manners. And afterward he attempted to pay off him to get some help from him. This was an unethical demonstration of Opoku Afriyie.

vii. An ethical issue is a confusion in settling on a decision as there are two alternatives to it which are clashing from one another and not completely adequate from the ethical perspective. In a situation where an individual can settle on one of the two decisions in a situation yet both are not completely ethical to make.

viii. The three ethical issues that open officials experience in their daily work life are:

ethical issues including reasonableness this can incorporate the worry of working for open intrigue decently and not preferring any colleague like family or companions in it.

the contention among open and individual intrigue a contention with individual intrigue can emerge in playing out the open obligation with steadfastness.

Issue of acting with trustworthiness and respectability playing out all obligations as an open officer and being straightforward towards work in all situations which have high extent of misrepresentation and unethical practcies.

ix

Four significances of values in individuals are

1. Values assume an important job in the mix and satisfaction of man's essential driving forces and wants in a steady and reliable way proper for his living.

2. They are conventional encounters in social activity comprised of both individual and social reactions and mentalities.

3. They develop social orders, incorporate social relations.

4. They form the perfect elements of character and range and profundity of culture.

Answer x)

BLANCHARD and PEALE Models (1988)

Blanchard ('One Minute Manager') and Peale in their 1988 book 'The Power of Ethical Management' propose the vast majority essentially know directly from wrong yet put themselves into distressing situations since they have purposely settled on unethical decisions.

They propose 'it is anything but difficult to charge ahead without deduction and afterward support your conduct after the occasion. Be that as it may, the truth is " THERE IS NO RIGHT WAY TO DO A WRONG THING".

Hazy areas

Blanchard and Peale battle that the very presence of a "hazy area" among good and bad is no reason for abstaining from morals.

They recommend that a great part of the "grayness" can be removed from ethical dilemmas by setting aside the effort to weigh up a decision.

Morals CHECK

Blanchard and pearl's model of ethical dilemmas mainly focusses on three types o questions when an ethical dilemma arises which include :

• whether the problem arised is legal - the person should be clear whether he is violating any kind of law, rules and regultions.
• whether the problem is balanced - understand whether the problem is long term or short term and what kind of state it brings.
• whether the decision made would make good and benefit or not - will the decision mabe provide the person with a favourable outcome.

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