Waste or Mismanagement?
27 July 2007 | Steve Bagshaw
We often report how various governments face accusations of wasting or mismanaging money through procurement and the cost of that to the taxpayer.
But it got me thinking – just what is the difference between waste and mismanagement? Fraud is a little more obvious, but it seems to be a little blurry between the other two.
What is the definition of wasting money? And is this different to mismanaging it?
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Waste is in buying something that is not needed or has “nice to have” attributes but are out of scope of the purchase.
Mismanagement in purchasing comes from buying something quickly as opposed to good strategic sourcing methods, and end up spending more money than necessary through lack of knowledge or information.