# Maverick buying

Source: https://contracko.com/glossary/maverick-buying

# Maverick buying

Purchasing outside agreed contracts or procurement processes, undermining negotiated terms and spend control.

## 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.

### How Contracko helps

Contracko stores the live preferred-supplier and framework contracts in a searchable repository, making it easy for procurement teams to look up which contracts exist, what they cover and when they expire, reducing the excuse that staff did not know a contract was in place.

## Relevant for

[Government & Public Sector](https://contracko.com/industries/government)[Healthcare](https://contracko.com/industries/healthcare)[Higher Education](https://contracko.com/industries/higher-education)[Manufacturing](https://contracko.com/industries/manufacturing)

## Related clauses

- [Compliance Clause](https://contracko.com/clause-library/compliance)
- [Purchase Obligation / Minimum Take](https://contracko.com/clause-library/purchase-obligation)

## Related terms

- [Procurement policy](https://contracko.com/glossary/procurement-policy)
- [Procure-to-pay](https://contracko.com/glossary/procure-to-pay)
- [Spend analysis](https://contracko.com/glossary/spend-analysis)
- [Procurement process optimization](https://contracko.com/glossary/procurement-process-optimization)

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## Frequently asked questions

Common questions about this term.

- **Q:** Why do employees engage in maverick buying?
  **A:** The most common reasons are that the preferred process is too slow or cumbersome, the catalogue lacks the items they need, or they are unaware that a contract exists.

- **Q:** What percentage of maverick buying is considered acceptable?
  **A:** Most organisations target below 10% of total spend; best-in-class procurement teams aim for under 5%. Higher rates indicate systemic process or catalogue gaps.

- **Q:** Does maverick buying create legal risk?
  **A:** Yes. Purchases from non-contracted suppliers lack negotiated warranties, SLAs and compliance obligations, and could breach public procurement rules if mandatory competition requirements are bypassed.

- **Q:** How does procurement policy reduce maverick buying?
  **A:** A clear policy sets mandatory channels, approval thresholds and consequences for non-compliance, and gives finance and audit teams the baseline against which deviations can be measured.

- **Q:** Can maverick buying ever be justified?
  **A:** Emergency purchases where the preferred supplier cannot deliver in time may justify a deviation, but the purchase should still be ratified through the normal process retrospectively and the root cause addressed.

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