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Case Studies
Good relations with complications
Given the increasing demand of the hotel guests for local tour services, the hotel’s senior management decided to set up a consignment corner for a travel agency to deal with these requests. Janice, the hotel’s Marketing Manager, was assigned to the task.
It seemed only natural, therefore, for Janice to call Tommy, her brother-in-law, to enquire whether the travel agency he worked for would be interested.
In the midst of a recession, the performance of Tommy’s company had already been discouraging.
Hence, the pressure on Tommy, the Business Development Manager, to find a solution was intensified. The prospect of winning the consignment corner came as a huge relief to Tommy. He explained that this would save his career and urged Janice to grant the consignment contract to his travel agency. Believing that Tommy’s agency was as good as any other agencies and no one would discover their relationship, Janice made her decision easily.
A month later, as a token of gratitude, Tommy presented Janice a tour package to Hawaii as her birthday present.
Case Analysis
Considering the close relationship with her brother-in-law, Janice should have observed her company’s internal guidelines on declaration of conflict of interest and refrained from being involved in the granting of contract. Conflict of interest situations such as this, if not dealt with properly, may easily lead to corruption.
Under the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance (POBO), a tour package is an advantage. Janice might breach the POBO if she, without the permission of the hotel, accepted the tour package as a reward for granting the contract to Tommy’s agency. In that case, Tommy might also breach the POBO for offering of bribe.