CASE STUDY 1

Manav Saxena had joined Bhagat Enterprise only a few days back as the Purchase
Manager and he was going through the employees conduct manual. He was
attracted by the clause, prohibiting acceptance of gifts by the employees of the
purchase department. It read as follows:
“Purchase department employees shall not accept gifts from vendors. This is to
ensure that no vendor is given any special treatment and the employees work only
in the best interest of the firm at all times. Any deviation from the above would be
dealt with severely and could mean dismissal from the firm.”
Manav remembered his experience with his previous firm, Giant Corporation,
where he had worked from 1970 for six years as purchase head prior to joining the
Bhagats.
It was only six months since he was with the Giants when it was New Year. With
the New Year came some inconsequential gifts like ball pens and key chains. The
rule in the firm was that an employee could accept no gift worth more than Rs 25.
One day one of the vendors brought three wall clocks, one for the MD, one for the
GM, and one for Manav. The vendor explained that as his firm had purchased the
clocks in bulk they cost only Rs 25 each and as such there should not be any
hesitation in accepting the same. He added that in any case he is going to accept
the Giant’s calendar and dairy for his firm in return. Manav found it hard to
believe that the clocks were only worth Rs 25. He decided to take the matter to the
MD of the firm.
The MD had one look at the clocks and called his secretary to take one of the
clocks meant to be given to the MD to be placed on the wall in his office and told
Manav to distribute others as desired by the vendor explaining that in bulk the
clocks would cost about Rs 25 only. Manav had taken the clock and given to his
wife and it became the center point in their living room. In later years with the
Giants he had taken gifts of dubious value always proclaimed worth less than Rs
25. To keep his conscience clear he would make sure to give some gift from his
firm to the vendor’s salesman in return. Manav in fact stopped feeling any remorse
on receiving the gifts and in fact he started looking forward to the festive season in
anticipation of some nice gifts. (In his heart he knew that none of the gifts could be
of less value than Rs 3000.)
Now again it was festive time and in the new firm he was not sure how he should
react to the gifts, which had become such a part of business calendar in India’s
corporate world. He was musing on the matter when Rajan the Executive Assistant
to the MD walked in. Rajan wanted to know if any gifts had started arriving or not.
He confirmed that it has been the practice with the previous purchase manager also
to accept the gifts and distribute them to the important persons of the firm like
himself. He added that not a word about the matter should be discussed with the
MD; otherwise there was every chance of that being thrown out of the firm. But if
he did not accept the gifts, he would annoy quite a lot of his colleagues.
Manav was wondering if this was just a ploy of the MD to test his integrity, as the
MD’s secretary would be in the MD’s confidence. At the same time Manav could
not risk taking a chance of annoying a large number of his new friends in the firm.
Sure enough, next day a vendor came with ten baskets, each having three bottles of
scotch whiskey, return air tickets for four to any destination in India with four
nights five star hotel stay thrown in. The total value of each of the gift baskets was
nearly two lakh. His secretary told Manav that this was just the beginning and the
gifts were also quite cheap compared to gifts from other vendors. Manav wondered
if his predecessor was thrown out of the firm on account of the gifts he was
receiving from the vendors, which were amounting to large amounts and were
practically bribes. Manav had no one to guide him at the moment.
CASE SUMMARY 1
The case circumvents around Mr. Manav, who has recently joined Bhagat
Enterprise as Purchase Manager. Prior to joining the Bhagats he was working with
the Giant Corporation where it was almost a part of the business culture to accept
gifts during festive occasion and in fact he stopped feeling any remorse on
receiving the gifts.
Now again it was festive time and in the new firm he was not sure how he should
react to the gifts. He had a lot of questions in his mind – whether his integrity was
being tested by the MD; whether the predecessor was thrown out of the firm on
account of accepting gifts from the vendors; how would the MD react if he
accepted the expensive gifts; if he didn’t accept the gift then will he annoy a large
number of his vendors and friends in the firm. So Manav was in a dilemma and he
didn’t wanted insult or upset anyone.
QUESTION
Please give your sincere advice to Manav in his hour of predicament?

OUR SUGGESTION AS A GROUP

Manav should not give in to the temptation of accepting the expensive gifts
without thinking and should consider the following points:
• He should first of all find out about the organizations culture towards
accepting gifts by casually talking to people in the firm and thereby garner
more and more information before taking any step.
• He should then verify the reason for his predecessor leaving the job, so that
if his predecessor has been thrown out of the job for accepting gifts, he does
not repeat the same mistake.
• Then Manav should also find out about the temperament of MD and how
high he is on his moral principles. He can do this by going to the MD with a
gift given by the vendor and ask him what he should do with it. If the MD
allows him to keep the gift that means he is okay with the idea of accepting
gifts. This way he can play safe and avoid face-losing confrontation with his
boss.
If the above mentioned points are in favor of Manav , then it is probably safe to
assume that there is no problem in accepting gifts as bribery, and even safe to
assume that the MD, his colleagues and vendors plans to share the take.
• But in our opinion it is far better to prevent bribery than to clean up the mess
later on. In addition to ethical considerations involved with bribery there are
some very practical reasons for not engaging in the practice as it will not
help you in the long run though it may reap you short-term benefits.

Unfortunately this is not the way the world operates and in order to survive in this
world we have to get real and learn the way of the world. Just to be on the safer
side if at all Manav is accepting the gifts he should maintain records and evidence
of the gifts received and by whom to be able to testify against the person in future.
In case he is caught up in a situation he can offer a legitimate explanation for the
bribery to put a veneer of legality to the situation.