Exterior and Interior Services

I oversee exterior and interior services for a multi-chain discount retailer involving a network of vendors. One particular vendor, SES, handles multiple services including floor care, snow removal, window cleaning and restroom cleaning. Approximately a year and a half ago a decision was made to award them a national landscaping contract. Awarding multiple services to one management company would result in better pricing due to bundled services. In addition to the bundled services, SES provides a rebate for the total spend which is close to $30 million annually.

SES provides consolidated weekly invoices to ensure we are paying for services in the month they are rendered. We submit accruals to accounting each month for the invoices that do not get submitted. The invoice process has ran fairly smoothly over the past 12 months, however I noticed there seemed to be a lag in a handful of services. I had voiced this to the VP of my division, but he assured me it was nominal spend and wouldn't affect the overall budget or reported earnings. I should also divulge that the CEO of SES and my VP will often have "off the record" conversations that I am not privy to. During the last month of our fiscal year, which ended in August, it was crunch time around the office as sales were down and the company risked missing the quarterly earnings. The VP of my division had to save $10MN in one month, so every penny was being accounted for. I had to put a freeze on all the store services, with the exception of any services performed due to impending fines from cities. Again, there wasn't anything unethical and would be considered a common exercise in my industry.