..and you thought only govt. officials are corrupt ?

Betaal bumped in to this land mine of money and malpractice ! And no - not in an govt. organization.

This is a global company, setting up its major operations in Bangalore. 1.1 B USD investment in a campus. And being one of the best employers, they have also set up real beautiful infrastructure, buildings and interiors.

Betaal heard from others, that the dept who directly oversees the construction, interiors and work place resources is engaged in typical govt. style bribing, money gobbling and stuff from vendors.

But, knowing the company is one of the most ethical in the world, he took those as just hearsay !

Until now ...

In this company's health club a pool table was to be procured from company X for a value of 10K USD. The quote came in. It is the only professional supplier in the city, which imports these tables from UK. Now, the dept had the option of getting this table for 10 K USD directly. They asked the interior decorator vendor the provide the table. Who submitted a quote of 16K USD.

They did not even officially receive the quote from X. The interior company supplied it for 16K USD. They in turn bought it for 10K from X. In the middle 6K USD went somewhere. No official tracking of that is possible to incriminate anyone ! Beautiful !

Second incident - a few more equipments need to be procured. Quotes from 2 leading vendors 13K USD and 27 K USD. Same equipments ! Almost 100% difference in value ???

The vendor with 13K USD quote (call is A) is the "preffered" vendor for this dept.
The second one (call it B) is a majority of the equipment users reccomendation which has submited twice the amount for the same equipment. In a "show off" public meeting, they show up - do a comparision and say that A's price is unbeatable and we should go with A.

Slamdunk !!

Not yet ! Betaal thought something is wrong and asked for the original, stamped, on company letter head quotes of both A and B for review. After the initial inhibition, and hasitation they submitted those for review.

Here is the fine print -

In the company A's quote it says - 39% customs duty Extra and Shipment and installation charge of 5%. Plus the VAT (tax). - Extra !

In company's B's quote it says "Everything inclusive".

The devil is in the details that no one in that meeting saw. And this is all happening in a top notch global corporation which is known for its ethics.

Irony - Betaal told this to a few senior folks. And they advised him to stay quite as it may pose physical danger to him !