The goal of Government Procurement is to stimulate thought and discussion on significant issues in the profession, to foster collaboration and community, and to encourage creative solutions to common challenges. In that spirit, this issue of Government Procurement presents a hypothetical scenario describing a challenge that procurement professionals might face in the course of their careers.

The following scenario was created by Stephen B. Gordon, PhD, FNIGP, CPPO, who is the Director of the Graduate Certificate Program in Public Procurement and Contract Management at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va.

If you feel moved to respond — and we hope that you do — we’ll publish your comments in an upcoming issue of Government Procurement.

You have been named the Director of Procurement for the XYZ Urban County Government. The government has a long-standing and well-deserved reputation for corruption and poor business practices generally. You were brought in by the newly-elected County Executive to create, implement and institutionalize a world-class procurement program. Not all stakeholders in the current program are excited that you will be coming on board. It is unclear whether the stakeholders who say they support the County Executive’s goal actually do.

Given that you had a very nice “job-for-life” in a very well-run city halfway across the country, why did you agree to take on this challenge?

What is your time frame for institutionalizing the world-class procurement program?

What are the principal elements of your strategy for creating, implementing, and institutionalizing the world-class program?

Government Procurement welcomes your feedback.

Send letters to: publications@nigp.org or Government Procurement, 6151 Powers Ferry Road NW, Suite 200, Atlanta GA 30339, Attn.: Bill Wolpin. We reserve the right to edit all letters for clarity, brevity, grammar, punctuation, syntax and style.