Ex-SAP director: I bribed govt officials to seal the deals on software A former regional director of German enterprise software outfit SAP has pleaded guilty to bribing officials in the Panamanian government to secure a contract for one of the company's resellers. Vicente Eduardo Garcia, 65, of Miami, Florida, admitted giving $145,000 in bribes to one government official and promising bribes to …
Just seems to me that sometimes, bribes are what gets things done in some parts. I knew a field service type, who when he went into certain places had to pay a "gratuity" to get his tools through customs. Parts had to have a "handling fee" paid. In all cases, the fees disappeared into the custom's guys pocket. I guess it's one of "amount of money" or "ensuring the contract with no problems" that creates the legal problem....
Exactly. I'm pretty confident that no government contract ever gets agreed in somewhere like Panama without brown envelopes being involved. Of course, in the UK such rewards are much more likely to take the form of a directorship once your early retirement comes through, which is all perfectly legit (apparently).
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'Worth'?
It might have cost that much, but nothing from SAP is 'worth' more than $1.50.
The Germans make such nice cars, but their software is just weird. I think that their software industry is descended from their Cuckoo Clock industry.
Some parts? If we're being really honest about it, it's true in MOST parts of the world. The trick is to do it in a legally sanctified manner.
On this side of the pond it's usually called "campaign contributions" or "my husband/wife's charity" although I understand in some circumstances it is called "Speaking fees".
I can think of several companies in the chemical industry who went bust - or came close - as a direct result of implementing SAP and so losing control of their business.
Too big, too unwieldy, and - in their kind of businesses - impossible to configure properly. In a nutshell, the stock control......doesn't control stock.
The late Sony Stores in Canada provides another example. Roughly a decade ago their retail store fronts were nearly empty of merchandise for more than a year, nearly empty shelves. I assumed that they were going out of business, and I kept dropping by for the inevitable clearance sale. But the prices never budged, but the stores were nearly empty. It went on for a year.
I found out later that they couldn't put boxes on trucks for about a year due to some ERP implementation project. Guess who...
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