Reflection 2

As stewards of the public trust, government leaders and employees have a fiduciary
responsibility to act in a manner that is fair and unbiased, that is loyal to the public by putting
public interest before personal gain, and that fulfills duties of competency, integrity,
accountability, and transparency. In fulfilling these duties, public officials will encounter
predictable ethical dilemmas which arise out of their role as public servants.
My personal experience in my office or organization involving an ethical dilemma of fairness.
I was a Technical Working Group (TWG) member of Bids Award Committee (BAC) in our
office. The main function of TWG is to assist Bids and Award Committee in the procurement
process such as eligibility screening, evaluation of bid and post qualification process. One of
my boss asked for a favor, to help win a certain contractor B over contractor A in the Bid
Evaluation. Contractor A was the lowest bidder base on the Bid opening. In addition, contractor
A met all the minimum requirements to proceed to next screening steps base on the bid
evaluation. My boss instructed me to do something in order to favor the contractor B. TWG
member can recommend to the BAC who is the most responsive bidders base on the evaluation.
This personal experience involving ethical dilemma is common to public officials who has the
potential or ability to influence the work involving public interest. It is also an example of a
classic dilemma due to conflicting criteria for same virtue or behavior. Each of the opposing
sides of dilemma is valuable, and choosing one side only result in predicament of extremism. In
this experience, I just follow the R.A 9184 guidelines and refused to follow the instruction of my
boss.