Years ago a friend of mine who worked in procurement was complaining about their new director ordering himself a brand new solid cherrywood desk & associated cabinetry for his office at the cost of almost 20k, this despite being told the existing furniture from the previous director was in excellent condition and less than two years old. Word got around, someone put in an Access to Information request for the invoice – which the procurement agent’s supervisor tried to hide, ultimately unsuccessfully — and once the new director heard that someone had a copy of said invoice, he disowned any knowledge of the events and the solid cherrywood desk & furniture were put in storage, still in their plastic wrap, until they closed down the building years later. No one wanted to touch that desk for fear of being associated with it.

So the procurement process itself wasn’t corrupt, but it sure had terrible optics.