[OT] Corruption

[quoted original message omitted]

> > If there's no rules, you can't bribe people to look

"Sorry, Mr.Smith, the procurement officer is unable to meet with you until
January 28. Yes, the due date for the bid is January 27. You said it was very
important to meet with him?"

or

"Hi Phil, I had your bid written down as $38 apiece but I just got off the
phone with your competitor and I'm wondering if I miswrote your bid, wasn't it
actually $33.88 apiece?" "Uh...yeah! Yes, that's right." "Okay, I thought that
was it, and that makes you low bid by $0.12. Thanks for the case of wine, by
the way, that was very thoughtful."

So, you've been to Mexico recently?

Michael Brown

[quoted original message omitted]

Michael Brown schrieb:
> So, you've been to Mexico recently?

No. I have heard such tales from former East Germany. Except the last bit
about the paperwork. East German policemen squeezed West German
drivers, but delivered all the money to the state (supposedly) :-(

Greetings Karl Heinz

> And, by the way, corruption is certainly not limited to

There is a cute little revision currently being run in the (IIRC)
Philippines - special traffic police send a vehicle  up the one way
(wrong direction) and their partners stop you and give you a on the spot fine
(perfectly legal) for driving the wrong way. Guess how much makes it to the
station?

$10 equivalent fines add up after a hard day misdirecting traffic (failure to
obey a special traffic officer is also $10 equivalent
IIRC...
win/win - for them...)

Gracias, Glenn

On Mon, 6 Jan 2003 06:41:45 +0100 KH.Ranitzsch@t-online.de
> (K.H.Ranitzsch) writes:

Someone mentioned Mexico. I had a female friend (travelling with another
female friend) take a midnight bus from somewhere to somewhere else in
Southern Mexico. They were
the only two bus riders - they didn't think much
of it, being as it was late. They got stopped by the police (which also didn't
really setoff any alarms, because they are Canadian and our Cops are mostly
pretty decent) and the driver seemed... very disturbed and agitated. The
police came in and talked with them, asked them where they were from, etc. My
friend, out of spontaneous good nature (she's a peach) offered the copper a
handfull of Werthers from her pocket. The cop seemed taken aback.... but
flattered. He wished them a good night and they carried on. When they got to
<insert destination, I forget>, people asked them "How did you get here?"
"Bus." "The Midnight Run?" "Yes? (puzzled)" "Oh, Madre Di Dios! Are you all
right? Were you stopped by the police?" "Yes. We chatted with them. I gave the
officer a
Werthers. It wasn't a big deal - why?" "!!!!!! -
Last night, they stopped the bus, took everyone's money, made everyone undress
and
walk into town." "!!!!!!! Oh....!!!!!"

Motto: Always carry a Werthers and offer it to those who might mean you harm.
(Or perhaps, if you are a Tom Baker fan, a Jelly Baby). Of course, having a
whopping quantity of dumb ass luck can't hurt either.

A comedian was joking about there always
being one loner/maladjusted guy at each
workplace, that no one will talk to. He mentioned how he'd talk to the guy,
bring him coffee, give him a chocolate bar, etc. whenever he saw him. Why? So
that when he finally snapped and was raging around the office with
an AK-47, it'd be "Die you vermin... bang bang
bang!.... <next office> Die scum....bang bang bang.... <next office> Die
yo.... errr... wait a minute.... that was a damn good coffee... carry
on....<next office> Die you dirtbag.... bang bang bang.... etc."

Despite it being a kind of grim joke, there is a grain of truth to it.

And as a high tech example of corruption: Working on a project for a
government owned corporation. We need information from another company that
works with the government as they worked on the last version of this item.
They are competing with us on some other bids, so the channel closes. One of
our developers knows someone who works there, so he calls over and acquires
what we want through the "old boys and girls network". Of course, this would
have got the someone in big trouble if he or she were caught. Sometimes a bit
of "corruption" gets the (technical) task done when business logic (oxymoron)
is standing in the way.

Of course, plenty of other times it results in single sourcing of contracts,
requirements being signed off near the end of the contract after the product
is developed, assisting the client in developing the requirements (of course,
to the limit of the money they have available!), etc.

No, of course free trade promotes no corruption.... (in the government!)......

;)

> No, of course free trade promotes no

At the time I was selling plastics, Navy rules were that you had to fill out
17 pages of paperwork; and my company rules were that a minimum purchase was
$50. So occasionally, when someone just needed a small piece of material, we'd
give him a "sample" and he'd leave
something--usually food--for the warehouse crew.

OTOH, following the rules can result in stupidity. One Marine air station
called in every couple of months for a custom diameter rod.
It was about $4 worth of material and $100 set-up charge to grind it
down to the diameter they wanted. I explained that "You can get one every
other month at $104 each, or you can get a couple of years worth for $140."
Their rules only allowed them to stock one at a time, though, so they went the
$104 route.

In a message dated 1/6/2003 5:13:21 PM Mountain Standard Time,
> triphibious@juno.com writes:

> There is a cute little revision currently being run in the (IIRC)

Recall time in Germany mode:

Funny how the Politzi(sp?) would ALWAYS have speed checks up the morning of
an on-base Commanders call. Fines on the spot, to be payed in cash,
(perfectly legal:o) and such. How much made it back to the station? Why all of
it. That was the collection point for the money for the beer party that
afternoon. (Somewhere along the way, someone would usually end up mentioning
the part to the local Military folks. Hmmm, got to keep up those
German/American relations. Like we were going to complain about buying
our own beer:o)

Oh, and the way to get out of paying? (My wife discovered this one:o) Don't
carry a lot of cash on you. When you start counting out Pfenig, (pennies) to
try and pay they will usually wave you on:o)

Randy