In a recent, brief blog post at Contract-Matters.com, I came across a moving and very human consequence of the impact of poor contract practices.
The post makes reference to two separate articles that appeared in The Times of India, the first regarding the revoking of a $500million airport build contract – which I’m sure would have had a serious impact on many. But the incident that really attracted my attention was the second case – that of a failure in an oxygen supply line to a hospital – tragically leading to the death of four patients.
But why did the supply fail? Technical reasons perhaps, or an accident? No, the cause appears to be down to the supplier withdrawing their staff after a contract extension was not forthcoming. The hospital claims it had given verbal assurances that the supply contract would be extended and that funding had also been sanctioned – but it seems there was nothing in writing.
Whilst there is no doubt more to the incident than meets the eye, with solid contract management practices, based on effective contract discovery and analytics, earlier intervention may have prevented the tragic loss of life in one or more of the four cases – the ultimate human cost of poor contracting practices.
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