Garwood Becomes Corporate VP of Procurement at Rand Logistics
Earlier this fall, Rand Logistics, Inc. (NASDAQ:RLOG), a New York-based bulk shipping services provider that serves the Great Lakes region, announced that it has appointed Christopher J. Garwood as its new Corporate Vice President of Procurement, effective immediately. In his new role, Mr. Garwood will be responsible for all indirect procurement and strategic sourcing projects related to Rand’s fleet of bulk carriers, including ships, fuel, parts, goods, and service.
Garwood has 15 years of experience as a procurement practitioner and consultant, most recently serving as Senior Manager in the Advisory Services Division at Ernst & Young. Prior to that, he held Director and Senior Director positions at Cliffs Natural Resources, heading up their Strategic Sourcing and Global Strategic Sourcing Divisions, respectively. Before joining Cliffs, Garwood worked for various consulting firms, notably Accenture, BearingPoint, and Arthur Anderson. He got his start in procurement, sourcing, and supply chain at PolyOne Corporation while completing his degree in Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from John Carroll University. We wish Christopher all the best in his newest role.
World Bank Procurement Reforms Also Intended to Reduce Corruption, Risk
In early October, we reported that the World Bank intends to institute sweeping procurement reforms with the goal to be faster and more agile in how it engages the international community. Another aim of its procurement reform, as reported by Compliance Week, is to reduce the levels of corruption and risk that are rampant within the international lending environment. After its more than 5,000 shareholders and stakeholders began discussing what and how the World Bank should reform back in 2012, they decided that future World Bank-funded projects must feature “an enhanced risk-based approach” using optionally sustainable criteria for source selection.
The Bank is also considering ways to increase transparency in the bidding and awarding process, as conflicts of interest often go unreported during the these phases. Corruption, cronyism, and favoritism could be reduced with more enterprises and institutions being compelled to disclose “beneficial ownership information” – that is, who truly owns a business and who would benefit financially from a contract or project. But as Compliance Week points out, there are a host of challenges that go along with instituting tighter risk management measures within the World Bank’s procurement reform. To read the rest of article, click here.
British Government Publishes Guidelines on Modern Slavery Act Compliance
In late October, the British government released a guidebook on how enterprises impacted by the recent Modern Slavery Act should comply with the law (click here to read about our prior coverage of the Act). The guidebook begins with an overview of the Act and which organizations are required to comply with it (those operating in the UK that annually turnover 36 million British Pounds/$55 million U.S. Dollars). It continues with their mandate to provide enhanced transparency and reporting on their supply chains, followed by producing a slavery and human trafficking statement relative and specific to its organization and supply chain.
The guidebook offers advice on how to draft the statement, including the structure of the statement, and how to file the document. It then goes on to discuss how enterprises can get their statements approved, and how they should respond to a finding or findings that modern slavery and/or human trafficking is present in their supply chains. The guideline also has many other resources for enterprises, including annexes with definitions, case studies, best practices, and specific information for franchise owners. Readers can download the guidebook by clicking here.
GAO Reports Mixed Results on Federal Strategic Sourcing for IT Services
A recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that five U.S. government agencies – the Departments of the Army, Navy, Air Force, NASA, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – topped the list of U.S. agencies for strategically sourcing IT services in Fiscal Year 2013. According to the report, DHS sourced 44% of its IT services through strategic suppliers, while NASA sourced 35%. To improve IT services spend within these agencies and across the federal government, the GAO recommended consolidating strategic suppliers and leveraging contract vehicles to a greater degree in order to reduce duplicative sourcing and contracts. It also recommended that agencies implement use metrics and conduct analysis of IT services to determine which could be provided via strategic suppliers. Readers can download and read the full report by clicking here.
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