Reference no: EM133359199

A unique junior associate position with a sizable (300+ people) local management consulting firm was made available to TOM after he recently earned his bachelor's degree in accounting and completed a project management accreditation. The company, Southerncest, focuses on consultancy for the building sector. Namely, they are often hired for one of the following reasons: (a) a company needs to enhance their operational efficiencies and needs Southerncest to help to develop a plan and implement it, (b) a company has taken on a new construction project outside their normal scope and they need the human resources that Southerncest has to offer to help bridge them through the project or (c) the local or Provincial government hires Southerncest to assess the project plans in construction companies' bids for government contracts.

Given thwue clients they serve and the clients' needs for dependable service, reputation is everything for Southerncest. The promotional materials all center on Southerncest being a great company inside and out, from being one of the Province's best employers to winning the media's and the public's heart over by investing deeply in the community, Southerncest is a model business. The public's trust is everything to Southerncest.

Southerncest has a strong mentorship program in which new hires are assigned a mentor who helps them establish and progress on their professional development goals and personal career goals. This mentor also serves as a person to bounce ideas off of day-to-day. For the first four to six months, the company also tries to pair the mentor up with the new hire on projects so that they can get to know one another and build a rapport.

TOM's mentor is ASHA. ASHA, like TOM, was hired right after she finished her bachelors program and has been with the company for twelve years now. She was recently promoted to a role that makes her partner-track material. She is very focused on making partner before she is in her late 30s; in other words, 37 by her standards. She is only two or three years from that self-set deadline, so ASHA is laser-focused on the customer satisfaction and budgets for the projects on which she works. These are the things that matter if you want to make partner; and she wants to build a brand for herself within the company. ASHA's ambition is inspirational to TOM who is very driven himself. He, like ASHA, hopes to be a partner as early as possible. So far, ASHA has been a fantastic mentor, giving him interesting work with some autonomy.

ASHA, TOM (a junior associate) and a team of five other associates (4 junior and 1 senior) have been assigned to audit the bids for government construction contracts in the local area. ASHA and her team have been doing all of the analyses, but HANK (ASHA's mentor) is the partner overseeing the project. ASHA speaks very highly of HANK, especially mentioning his focus and determination at work. He is THE partner to get results. ASHA and HANK seem to be very close. TOM hopes, in time, his mentorship relationship with ASHA will be similar.

Given the substantial size of the contract, $200 million, the government officials want to know that the projects proposed in the bids are realistic, will come in on budget and are from reputable and capable companies. In fact, ASHA's team had to sign forms verifying that they did not know or have a vested interest in the people from the companies or in the companies themselves. What's more, in order for Southerncest to even land this audit project, they could not have worked with these companies any time in the last ten years. This was one of the biggest audit-type projects Southerncest had ever done. TOM was so

grateful for the opportunities to be on this team within a few months of starting at Southerncest.

As TOM and a couple of the other junior associates were going over one of the company's bids, Forefront Construction. TOM had noticed a few inconsistencies between one document and all of the rest of the documents. In one document, which is an appendix, he noticed the hourly rate listed is $45, but in all other documentation the hourly rate was $105. Given the number of hours projected for this category of worker (i.e., architecture and engineering support), the hourly wage difference resulted in $200,000 difference in the projected budget. TOM being the one who noticed it asked if anyone else had any documents that had $45/hour. No one found anything.

TOM went out into the hall to see if he could find ASHA. ASHA's assistant said she was on a break outside. TOM went outside to look for her as he knew she would be excited to tell the government client about what they found if this turned out to be fraudulent. ASHA was on a phone call, so TOM took the opportunity to get some sun and rested on a nearby bench.

He thought ASHA had seen him, but then he overheard her talking to what seemed like a family member. He couldn't make out much but he heard discussion of Thanksgiving plans, so he assumed it was family, "Now, that SARA has that new job at Forefront, he will be busy, but at least it pays very well. Maybe he and I can have enough to put a down payment on a house, instead of condo.....[other person on phone said something]...Yeah, did I not tell you? He and his boss put together a bid for this huge government contract and plan to make money at it.....[other person]....really big, like tens of thousands of dollars more for him by year end....[other person talking]...we see it all the time. It's called padding to make sure that your project is profitable in case it goes over time...[other person]....yeah, let's just say it's as padded as a hockey player....the architects are well supported."

As ASHA started to walk closer to TOM, he froze. What should he do? SARA quietly stood up and lurked back into the office without ASHA noticing. What had he heard? What had he stumbled upon? Could this really be?

QUESTION

Based on this story, come up with your own ethical reasoning to each person / group listed based on the different topics