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Follow a commitment from proposal to payment.
A board may receive a polished risk report while a site team has already committed the business to an urgent supplier. The practical weakness sits between the formal approval and the daily decision. Reviewing that handover is often more useful than adding another policy.
Choose one recent purchase or project variation. Identify who requested it, who checked the terms, who approved it and when the supplier began work. Compare the sequence with the written delegation. Where practice differs, establish whether the rule is unclear, impractical or deliberately ignored. Each cause requires a different response.
Separate oversight from execution.
The G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance describe board responsibilities for strategy, monitoring management and oversight of internal controls. The way those responsibilities are organised varies across jurisdictions and company structures. [1]
For a business operating in South Africa and the DRC, the group reporting line does not by itself establish the authority of each local entity. Document which company signs the contract, who can bind it and which matters require escalation. Obtain jurisdiction-specific advice on legal duties and approvals. A group policy should help people follow those requirements, not imply that one country's rules apply everywhere.
Give exceptions an expiry date.
An urgent purchase can be legitimate. The problem begins when an emergency approval becomes the normal route for repeat business. Require the person seeking an exception to state the operational need, the alternatives considered, the cost and the period covered.
In an illustrative maintenance case, a team might need a replacement part before its normal procurement process can finish. The record should identify the supplier, price check, approver and follow-up action. Set a deadline to restore the ordinary process. A repeated exception should trigger a review of planning, supplier capacity or the approval threshold rather than another automatic signature.
Make conflicts visible before the choice.
UNODC's practical guide for businesses treats risk assessment and business-partner controls as part of an anti-corruption programme. The appropriate depth depends on the business and its exposure. [2]
Apply that principle to the actual transaction. Ask decision-makers to disclose relevant interests before reviewing bids. Establish who checks ownership information, who assesses warning signs and who decides whether more evidence is needed. Do not let the person recommending a supplier also close an unresolved concern about that supplier. Keep the information proportionate and handle personal data under the applicable requirements.
Test whether the decision was carried through.
Minutes should make the next step clear. Record the chosen option, the reason, the material uncertainty and the person responsible for delivery. When management reports back, compare what happened with what was approved. A larger cost, a new subcontractor or changed payment terms may need another decision.
Once a quarter, trace a small set of important decisions through to their outcome. Look for approvals recorded after commitments, missing evidence and repeated exceptions. Report the pattern and assign a corrective action. The point is to find where authority and information fail in ordinary work, while there is still time to prevent a more costly mistake.
A question for your team
Could an independent reviewer reconstruct why our last major exception was approved?
Sources & notes
Sources checked on 29 October 2026. This article presents our analysis of the cited research and its implications for businesses. Numbered references link to the original sources.
