Economic Extortion.

Pakistan is positioned 140 out of 180 countries by a Berlin-based non-profit organisation called Transparency International, in the corruption perception index. It tells precisely how corrupt the public sector of a country is perceived by the people. However, the menace of corruption does not exist in the public sector alone but has wings in the private sector as well. Here, it affects the entire supply chain as it distorts suppliers, inflates costs of production and service, and subverts competition.

Even if the primary goal of a businesses is to increase profits, involving deceptive or corrupt practices for this end will impact the organisation adversely. For instance, it will decrease employee morale, increase cost, reduce productivity, experience a loss of market perception and loss of stakeholder's confidence, and sullies reputation. Employees particularly within this sector involve themselves in amoral practices. Inventory theft, assets misappropriation, kickbacks, illegal gratuities and economic extortions remain the established practices. For instance, some purchasers get their suppliers to give kickbacks and perform economic extortion by misusing a vendor by not giving them an order again if they don't acknowledge to do what is demanded from them. The suppliers are threatened by the quality assurance team or by the storekeepers that their product would not be passed if their demands are not responded to. Likewise, ghost production and ghost transactions to show the practical achievement of annual goals are also common practice in many SMEs or even in LSMs.

Covid-19 has starkly exposed the shortcomings of the health sector not only in Pakistan but in the world. The demand-supply theory has not spared even the vulnerable patients kicking the bucket in hospitals. Selling overpriced life-saving drugs like Actemra are heinous crimes; the cynical example of medical oxygen...

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