Cisco has $10.1 million in contracts with the State of Pennsylvania.
So after five state employees returned from a Harrisburg, PA tech conference with door prizes sponsored by Cisco (an iPod, $50 gift cards and free software), they were told to return the gifts.
The State of Pennsylvania has a management directive regarding gifts:
| Employees and the families of employees shall not directly or indirectly solicit, accept or agree to accept any gift of money or goods, loans or services for personal benefit under any circumstance which would influence the manner in which employees perform their work, make their decisions or otherwise perform their duties. |
The above directive appears to undermine official Cisco policy:
| Cisco policy allows gifts to be awarded to government employees if distributed as door prizes in a random drawing. |
Do YOU agree with the State of Pennsylvania that Cisco door prizes give the appearance of impropriety?
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State Workers are public servants
I think the state of Pennsylvania is correct. These state workers represent the State/Commonwealth and should not be swayed in their decisions on which IT Equipment vendor to work with. As we all know, there are generally better alternatives, at lower prices than Cisco Equipment.
These kind of conferences and prizes could easily pursuade these state gov't representatives to make decisions not in the best interests of the state.
It seems, in my mind, that Pennsylvania has a history of corruption. I remember a report years ago, of corrupt practices in the awarding of Road Paving projects in PA. When driving through Pennsylvania, one still finds crumbling road conditions. I think PA needs to adhere strongly to these rules - their IT infrastructure doesn't need to be as crumbling as their roads.