Isn't that standard business practice
I worked for a UK county council and one of our proposed suppliers offered us a trip to their foreign factory along with a medieval night and tour thrown in.
I refused the offer for the team as it was against official guidelines, but I then went on my annual holiday. On my return, I found my manager had the rest of my team lined up for a "training" trip.
I objected but was overruled so I tried and failed to organise some training to actually occur while they were there. I must have sounded alarm bells as the main salesman suddenly couldn't make the trip either.
They all went, and despite my objection, the large contract was awarded. A few days later the company was sold to a rival, probably on the basis of our large order and the equipment we had painstakingly evaluated was subsequently replaced with the rivals product which had already been discounted by us as not suitable.
Audit investigated but insisted on taking everything at face value, ie genuine training trip with no other expenses charged to query, and found their friend had done no wrong.
A restructure later by the management and I was found superfluous to the needs. When I went they had to hire 2 people to replace me so it was not a cost issue.
I sometimes wonder that if I had given in and gone on the jolly, Would I still be there?