Falsifying Documents for the Greater Good?

3.19 Falsifying Documents for the Greater Good?

Cases: 3.2, 3.4, 5.4, 5.6 Ethics is such a personal predicament. Sometimes, the theories, the situations, the

“I would NEVER do that,” may not really be real compared to life. One might believe that violating “ethics” for the greater good may not be a violation at all, except for the person violating it. One’s theories on ethics may not be the correct ones at all. The cultural diversity of it does not make it cut and dry. Every situation

76 ◾ Ethics Moments in Government: Cases and Controversies

violates some person’s ethics, so, whose do we choose? And at what point do we as administrators determine that our ethics are above that of another employee’s? Th ere are obvious ones that, generally speaking, we say never to do—knowingly falsifying documents, for one.

Discussion Questions

1. Is knowingly falsifying documents for the greater good an abstract, throw away argument? Or, is it real?

2. Is it possible to imagine a situation in which doing that particular thing would be more ethical than not doing it? Is it possible that falsifying a docu- ment could lead to a greater good?

3. Do you think it is ever ethical to falsify a document?

Commentary by Anonymous

I was working for the Department of Defense in the contracting department in a Middle Eastern country. Over $250,000 worth of equipment ordered by U.S. Air Force agencies was held up in customs on the other side of the country port. The politics of the time were such that the United States did not want to rock the boat.

As contracting officer, I thought I’d figure out how to get the equipment released. One requirement had to do with a release document from a high United States official that was notarized. The document was time sensitive. One of the fi nance offices fell through on their end, and to there was a delay by one day. Of course, the document would now be null and void, and guess what? The official was no longer available.

I had no authority to do this, but I called the legal office on the West end and told him to redo the whole document, whatever you have to do and change that date for the next day. He asked me a bunch of questions; he was an attorney after all. So, I instructed him on how to cut, paste, and copy, and redo the official seal. In essence, we falsified the document.

I felt I had no choice. This process of negotiations to even get to the point of getting the equipment out of customs was over several months. Lining up and coordinating all of these agencies took a very long time, and I wasn’t about to blow it on a stupid piece of legally required document.

You may ask all the what-ifs. But there are only two of us who know that the document was falsified—myself and the attorney. I received an award for my work in getting the equipment released. I did not pay for those goods, the taxpayers of the United States did. And if it were my money, I’d have done the same. If I had not been able to secure the release of the equipment, it was going to go into the Middle Eastern country’s local market. They were not going to return it to the vendor.

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