Procurement may be defined as "the act of obtaining or buying goods and services." The Business Dictionary goes on to say that procurement is a process. "The process includes preparation and processing of a demand as well as the end receipt and approval of payment."

In times gone by (and, sadly, to some extent still today) this process has been prone to a considerable amount of graft and general corruption. For party of the first part is trying to persuade party of the second part to buy certain goods and services. Procurement officers are fiduciarily charged with getting the best deal for their companies. Sellers are taught to get the order. Less than sterling ethics on either side can corrupt the process and unfairly cheat one party, often the buyer, with inflated prices, shoddy goods or services and less than maximum value.

Modern software controls have eliminated some, but not all, of these opportunities to steal from the procurer. However, unethical people can find the means to game any system, no matter how good it is. This is particularly true when unethical intent rises several layers in the organization.

Others naively think such software monitoring will assure the best value is procured for the purchaser. Indeed, the software is getting better all the time, but there will likely always be improvements to be made.

One place where I see the human element to be particularly helpful is the good old fashioned "horse trading" that can be done by experienced human beings in the process of negotiations. This is not unethical per se nor illegal, either. It is the recognition of the negotiating parties that a slight variation in the description of the goods or services, a slight change in the scope or schedule of supply may be advantageous to both.