Maverick Spend

Maverick Spend (or maverick buying) is purchasing made outside an organisation's approved procurement processes, contracts or preferred suppliers — for example an employee buying from a non-contracted supplier, skipping the requisition/PO process, or paying a higher price than the negotiated contract rate. It is off-contract, uncontrolled spending that undermines procurement.

Maverick spend is costly and damaging: it forfeits negotiated pricing and volume leverage, erodes compliance and budget control, obscures spend visibility, and increases risk (unvetted suppliers, no proper terms). It typically thrives where processes are slow or cumbersome, catalogues are lacking, or spend is fragmented — classically in tail spend and MRO. Reducing it is a key procurement goal, tackled by making the compliant route the easy route: user-friendly e-procurement, catalogues, clear policies, spend analysis to detect leakage, and good supplier coverage. Curbing maverick spend is one of the most direct ways to protect the savings that sourcing and contracts are meant to deliver.