Kickback

Kickback is an unethical payment for obtaining preference over some capable person for any discriminatory or special treatment for supplying any goods or service or getting any work done. It can be in cash, credits, goods, preferential allocation, or any other valuable material or service. According to the law, these practices are termed as anti-competitive practices or even bribery.

It can be referred to as a form of bribery wherein the recipient of illegal gain returns some amount, in the name of the commission, to the bribe-taker, who assisted the recipient in obtaining the assistance. Thus, a kickback fee is a commission paid for getting something done by a person through unethical means.

Kickbacks are disguised in the normal operations of an entity, and it is of utmost difficulty to detect such operations. For example, a purchaser paying for goods that have inflated costs & such a purchaser will receive a kickback from the seller of goods. White-collar employees conduct such crimes.

The intention behind paying the kickback may be good or bad, but the practice in itself is unethical. For example, a government employee receiving a kickback fee for a high-cost inflated project will provide a better quality of projects to the public.

Thus, kickback starts with the intention of the player or receiver. The payment is normally referred to as commission in some other form.

Some of the well-known methods include the following:

• Inflating the cost of goods or services
• Vendors directly contact the employees outside the SOP for business.
• No review process for critical processes within the entity
• Highlighting a specific vendor or customer over others
• No quality check for goods or services received

Let us understand the concept of a kickback scheme with the help of a couple of examples. These practical examples will help us understand that such unethical schemes and practices are prevalent across industries and at different levels.

Example #1

 Aaron & Finch Co. a stockbroker, executes all their trades on behalf of their clients through a particular exchange as a kickback arrangement has been made between the two parties.

Other exchanges with better payment systems, interface and user experience are ignored for an exchange with somewhat lesser efficient systems than its competitors only because such an arrangement has been made.

Despite the high charges, Aaron & Finch Co. recover the costs easily by executing smart trades and charging their clients a premium. These arrangements never saw the light of the day as clients were happy to see their investments grow despite the high charges and all parties were left satisfied even though an unethical practice was being carried out on a daily basis.  

Example #2

Adobe, the tech giant company was accused and convicted of running a kickback scheme through its solution partner program. They have contractual relationships with government employees through which they were able to have undue influence over federal purchases of software provided by Adobe.

Since such arrangements increase the cost of purchase and thereby, the cost is increased for the taxpayers as well, the Us Department of Justice keeps a close eye on arrangements of this sort.

As a result, Adobe was directed to pay a fine of $3 million towards resolving the false claim act allegations against them.

As we have understood from the discussion so far, kickback schemes are prevalent across industries and come in different forms. Let us understand the most common forms of such arrangements through the explanation below.

#1 - Medical Industry

Federal healthcare fraud in the US is famous for such kickbacks. Fraudulent referral schemes are announced, which ultimately land up bribing the service recipient. Kickbacks under this category are famous for ambulance service, preferential treatment, medical appliances, a prescription for certain types of drugs only, etc. It normally extracts money for better services, which the hospitals are anyway bound to provide.

#2 - Financial Institutions

This type of kickback exists within the banking and financial institutions. Frauds may include transactions related to mortgage loans, providing business contracts or loans, etc.

#3 - Public Works

These kickbacks are most frequent in case contracts entered into by local governments. The authorized dealers enter into the highly inflated cost for the construction of roads with lower quality &, in effect, get the kickbacks from the contracts for the benefit passed on.

#4 - Securities Market

It may include price manipulation and promotion of stock by the parties involved, including the stockbrokers and investment bankers

#5 - Government Contract

This form generally happens in underdeveloped economies. Government-authorized dealers may enter into a disguised contract with the vendors to provide inflated prices. Such kickbacks are common in health care schemes, infrastructure facilities, or defense or educational facilities.

It is quite obvious that these arrangements are a threat to consumer belief on the system as well as the morale of people working within such organizations. Let us understand the larger picture and how these unethical arrangements are threats to the market and the economy on the whole.

• Discriminatory treatment for a person who can pay for the kickback & strict treatment for a person who cannot pay the kickback or cannot help the authorized dealer.
• The risk of compromise in the quality of goods, machinery, or services may strongly affect the lives of the common person.
• There is no or low assurance of honest completion of the contract by the vendor or contractor.
• Public safety may be at risk.

As government officials, business people, and common citizens of an economy, it is important for us to understand how to control and even better, hoe to completely negate these arrangements. Let us do so through the points below.

• Detection of kickbacks is not as easy as it seems. Such whistle-blowers are normally backed by ethical principles and are free of investigation of any sort. Thus, whistle-blowers have particular importance in derailing kickback schemes.
• The management should periodically review the third-party vendors by selecting random samples. The management can check for the entity the vendor owns, his physical address and contact numbers, any reference for the website, authentic information on his website, the price quoted, etc.
• Management can check for whether any vendor is related to the employees of the organization. Such relations can be checked through the ownership details of the vendor company.
• In the case of introducing a new vendor in the company books, the entity should have well-placed SOPs to capture every procedure for authentic dealing with the new vendor.
• Ensure that the prices are checked every time. The vendors should be reviewed periodically to ensure that only a few vendors are not given with most of the contracts, and the contracts are equally spread across the vendors. Also, the supply capacity of each vendor should be checked before providing the contract.