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Dear Sacha,
The
trouble with an economy as large and vibrant as America's is that it
bears a great resemblance to the cosmos: nobody can truly understand
its scope. Even those who work on Wall Street have to cut it down
to manageable size to be able to do their work. Is it, then,
surprising that large sums of money move about with hardly anyone being
aware of it? In such an environment, it isn't surprising that
some people will give in to the temptation to try to defraud the
government of money.
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Fighting fraud
Where
there is money there is likely to be fraud. It is inevitable that
the greater the amount of money involved, the higher the chance of
fraud. And who has more money than the government?
Governments need to be doubly vigilant about these risks because they face a twin danger. There is the potential for corruption from within and the possibility of being defrauded by companies
who do businesses with the government. It is hardly a wonder that
dedicated software has been developed, and is being used by government
departments, to help prevent fraud.
Adopting the correct
measures can prevent such unfortunate incidents and prevent the loss of
millions of dollars to government departments and agencies.
It
is natural to believe that this will never happen to us, yet it does
happen to someone's 'us'. Someone does have to feel the blow of
such an event. Take a moment to imagine how it might feel and you
have a much more visceral reason to wish to do whatever can be done to
prevent such an incident.
$45 billion. It's a considerable
sum but pales in comparison to how much state and local governments
spend on good and services. These purchases are already in excess
of 1.5 trillion dollars and within a few years could easily reach and
exceed $2 trillion. Nonetheless, the $45 billion were lost to
improper payments alone. This is, unfortunately, but one way the
government loses money.
All this leads to the inevitable conclusion that more must, and certainly can, be done. An e-government product like the ElectronicTender System
is a powerful tool and an excellent first step in adopting additional
e-government solutions. There is no doubt that a department that
has embraced e-gov fully is all the better protected against losing
funds in rather surprising directions.
Considering how much
money is involved in the purchase of goods and services, it is
unavoidable that there will be those who give in to temptation.
The problem cannot be solved immediately but it is never too soon to
begin looking for an answer.
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An International View
Although
it has nothing to do directly with e-procurement, it is interesting and
useful to get an international perspective on e-government. It is
one of the areas in which the World Bank engages itself. There is always something to learn - what not to do as well as what to do - and, as they say, it is never too late to learn.
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It
may sound jaded to keep coming back to the subject of money, but we
know that we aren't talking about money for its own sake. Money
is a shorthand for services that can be provided to citizens.
Inelegant, perhaps, but true. After all, $1,000 dollars saved
today is $1,000 that can be spent for better citizen services
tomorrow. And that is ultimately why every step, no matter how
unlikely, needs to be taken to protect government monies.
Sincerely,
Sacha Hartmann
YSER Inc.
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