“If you buy in bulk or buy frequently or you make sure that my products are always on your menu, we incentivise and motivate the buyers and the chefs,” said Najem. “We try to overcome [bribery] by creating more innovative ways to reward people.”
However, White acknowledged that some people will be driven by greed over quality.
“It’s very hard – even if our product is better, our price is cheaper, our service is better, he’s not going to care because he’s earning three times his salary with his bribe so he’s not going to go elsewhere. It’s up to the hotels to nip it in the bud.
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The Jumeirah Group had a big problem with it and now you can’t even send a Jumeirah Group chef an email – you have to go through procurement.
I believe there were two or three guys jailed for taking bribes so Jumeirah Group has nipped that in the bud, so I think hotels just have to regulate it a bit better,” said White, referring to the trial back in 2012 of the head chef and butcher at Burj Al Arab who were accused of taking kickbacks from four suppliers.
Wissam El Cheikh Hassan, managing partner of Al Dar Sweets, said that media exposure of this case was positive, as too often if situations occur, they are “kept in the dark and not made an example of”.
He said: “The result is that now Jumeirah Group has an extremely stringent, efficient and effective approach to purchasing. I know this because Al Dar Sweets won the contract to supply all Jumeirah properties in Dubai with Arabic sweets.
The tasting is done 100% blind, the chefs do not know who the suppliers that participated are. The supplier capability is assessed by purchasing, and if the selected supplier gives the price competitiveness that the chefs approved they win the business and a contract is put in place for a period of one year.
At no point does a supplier meet with the chef, purchasing remains to be a mediator between the chef and the supplier, and if a supplier requests a meeting with a chef that is not granted unless the chef requests to meet with the supplier”.
When shown the suppliers’ comments, a spokesperson for Jumeirah Group said: “Jumeirah has a very stringent business conduct and ethics policy that every employee signs up to”.
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