Do we forget the value of TRUTH from our business transactions when we are stuck?
In many business transactions, some information is hidden from another party. Some examples are -
In an EPC project, the customer had to provide some material to the contractor before the contractor could start the work. In every meeting, the customer said the material has reached port and is waiting for a tax reduction certificate from the government authorities. The customer insisted the contractor complete the rest of the work and when the material is issued to the contractor it can be installed later. The contractor was smart, he never initiated the work on sites where material from the customer was expected- the contractor had understood that it does not take so much time to get the material out of port. In short, the contractor got a signal that the customer is hiding some internal information and till the material is handed over, work will not be started at those sites.
The number of workers committed by a contractor on site was around 50, but to reduce the cost of his operations the contractor only had 20 workers working on site. During inspections by the customer reasons like some workers have gone to the yard, or are undergoing training, etc was given. Here also, information is withheld by the contractor and not communicated to the customer truthfully.
RT tests (X-ray testing) of joints are essential before handing over the final site to the customer. RT tests are specialized tests and are costly. The contractor was not an expert to do the same at this set cost. So he requested his site head to handle the situation. The site head informed the customer that RT tests will be conducted at around 2 AM at night so that we can get the right environment for the test. The checkers from the customer side used to visit the site to see the set up etc but did not wait till 2 AM. The site in charge did nothing at 2 AM and showed some good joint x-rays to the customer which were accepted and the site was happily taken over by the customer.
The work at the site was 90% complete and it would take 2 days more to complete the work. By bribing the customer side in charge, contractors usually get the approval for work completed to raise the invoices with customers. If the approval authority at the customer is smart enough to detect the misinformation, the invoice will get rejected. But most of the time, they agree to their in-charge and release the invoice.
Both from the contractor side and the customer side, such instances create a sense of mistrust and legal letters to punish each other. Somewhere, we have forgotten the value of TRUTH and consider that by hiding information we are not doing any crime but are being PRACTICAL.
Have you encountered any instances where you or someone held the information? Please share with me in the comment section.