Yours, Until Needed
Chapter 46: Purchase Orders

Chapter 46: Purchase Orders

LUCIAN

The house had been busy, but Lucian had no time to care. For these past two weeks, the housekeepers have finally been used, preparing meals, cleaning the house, and caring for Chester.

Rina almost lived in their house, and Lucian was okay with that because he’d been at the office most days.

They were approaching the final bidding and negotiations date, so the schedule has been tight. It was so tight that when Eli asked for the details of the Windham Island Project, he told her to approach Oliver instead.

So, all he knew was that Eli had the BOQ (Bill of Quantities), construction plans, project schedule, and list of suppliers and competitors with her.

Eli didn’t need that much information to survive the unveiling in less than two weeks. However, Eli insisted on understanding the project as if she were part of the team. She’s doing it while preparing for her finals and looking for office spaces.

"All that transferred treasury shares, and you expect me to sit on my butt?" Eliana reasoned, insinuating how she knew the value of the shares she just got.

Grandfather was generous and mostly afraid that Lucian would scare off the wife he had just gotten, so as compensation, Eliana got both preferred and common treasury shares. It took a while because the company had to buy back these shares. Of course, the Chairman paid for it himself. Even Lucian was surprised at the amount but said nothing.

When Eli found out, she tried rejecting the transfer, but Grandfather argued that it wasn’t even shares of the entire holdings company, just shares of what Lucian was most involved with.

True, even Lily wouldn’t blink at what Eli received, and their parents probably think it’s too little compensation. So Eli received the transfer under the condition that she be allowed to contribute to the company. She insisted that it was for her peace of mind.

"I don’t like dole-outs."

"And you kept talking about benefitting from your ’husband card,’ only to be scared off by that?" This earned him a stink eye and a glare.

"Just hand me the documents, and you can keep focusing on that."

"Get them from Oliver, and you can ask him if you have questions." Lucian shooed her to the overworked and, luckily, overpaid Oliver.

That was a week ago.

Tomorrow, they’ll have the final board meeting to decide on the final submission for next week’s bid.

So what the hell was this?

Oliver had actually rushed to his office armed with a stack of documents, and panic was written all over his face.

"What?" Lucian asked his panting assistant."

"Sir, apologies for barging in without knocking." He paused, catching his breath before speaking again.

"Last time, you told me to give the mistress access to the project files for Windham, so I did."

"And?"

"So I expected her to ask questions, and she did. But I got curious as to why she kept on asking questions that were getting more specific and more detailed."

"She was asking about what?"

Get on to the point, Oliver. Lucian felt like strangling the guy to just get on with it.

"About the materials acquisition costs." Lucian listened better, curious about the sudden interest.

"Then I asked the mistress about it. She said that, as we all know, aside from their hotel chain, the Anderson Group deals heavily with the sale of construction materials nationwide. And true enough, a lot of our materials were sourced through them."

"So what’s the problem?"

"At first, she said she’d get back to me, that she’d make sure first before saying what it was. Then, just now, she came to me with these." Oliver pointed at the stack of papers he was carrying, and Lucian looked at them—Purchase Orders.

"Sir, the mistress said that something was wrong with our acquisition prices. Our quotation prices were correct and well within standards, but our revenue is off on our internal docs."

"Off?"

"Look at these, Sir." Oliver pointed out the prices for the construction materials on their internal documents and the prices on the POs (Purchase Orders) signed and received by the Anderson Group.

The prices matched, so Lucian wanted to know what was so off about it that Eli, who had just learned about the project, would go to such an extent.

Then Oliver took out another document, one that stated the discounts on payment terms.

"The mistress wondered why all our prices used the commercial prices on their actual stores. She said that for such bulk purchases, they would always offer discounts, especially when paid within the stipulated time. So I asked her how that was a problem."

"Sir, we’ve always paid on time, and we’ve always availed of the discounts and bonuses." Oliver paused as he looked at his boss’s darkening face before continuing.

"But our records only show paying for the base prices, as if these discounts and bonuses never happened."

"So the mistress asked if someone’s been tampering with our revenue and inventory. She retrieved the past sales records and showed that we have, in fact, always received the discounts but received them as materials. So how come the cost of these bonus materials wasn’t reflected in our revenue calculation?"

No one noticed because the POs would really match, as prices are always calculated before the discounts, and eligibility couldn’t just be assumed.

But if each PO showed about 10-20% bonus materials as discounts, they wouldn’t have had that many repeat purchases at different times.

So where were these materials?

"Call Eliana."

__

Eliana was told to find other POs from the past years and verify with her parents if such discounts and bonuses really existed as part of their typical corporate dealings. And Eliana did.

When Lucian got home, he had Oliver in tow, who brought with him even more documents.

"I’m guessing you found what I was curious about?" Eliana asked Lucian, who looked ready for murder.

"Did you ask them?"

"Yep. And true enough, it’s been going on for years. No one found anything odd because, from the beginning, you’ve always had your bonuses converted into the same materials. We even have a copy of the records showing the receipt of these items."

She showed the receiving copy that had an extra page that didn’t appear on their own records.

"So you’ve got any idea where all these materials went over the years?" Eliana asked as she leaned by the counter.

"We’re about to find out."

The three of them stayed in the living room, pouring over documents from past projects. And eventually calculating the amount of materials they should have for Windham if the bonuses were factored in or if they were to take discounts instead.

"11.9%. Sir, the gap is around 11.9% in revenue." Oliver looked ready to cry, and Lucian looked even more menacing.

Eliana couldn’t believe the amount. She knew it would be substantial, but this? And that was for Windham, but that hasn’t even happened yet. What about these other projects?

The guys noticed how she looked at the past POs. They had the same thought: How much has the company lost if this has been going on for a while now?

"We need to ask Grandpa. Maybe he knows what’s up? Or worse, if he didn’t, we’ll have to let him know."

Oliver felt like tomorrow’s meeting would turn into a bloodbath. He considered feigning to be extremely sick. Maybe he could save himself from the carnage?

But then he looked at his boss and decided that he may not make it outside the hospital if he even tried.

To work, it is then.