Maverick buying

Definition

Maverick buying occurs when staff order goods or services from non-preferred suppliers or bypass the procurement system, forgoing negotiated prices and contractual protections. It erodes volume leverage, distorts spend data and increases compliance and quality risk.

Example

A department orders laptops directly from a webshop instead of the framework supplier, paying 20% more and voiding the agreed warranty terms.

Why this is a business risk

Maverick buying directly inflates costs because purchases land outside negotiated prices and volumes. It also distorts spend data used for supplier negotiations and category decisions, and removes contractual protections such as SLAs, warranties and compliance clauses from those purchases. Uncontrolled off-contract spend is a common audit finding.

How to manage it

• Establish and communicate a procurement policy with clear thresholds and mandatory channels.
• Deploy a supplier catalogue that makes the preferred route easier than bypassing it.
• Run regular spend analysis to identify off-contract purchases and trace them to root causes.
• Hold managers accountable for maverick buying rates in their teams.
• Review and expand the preferred-supplier list where legitimate gaps are causing workarounds.