Have you ever experienced true corruption?

From what I have seen about the current planning process is that politicians have no say anymore in the decision making process. They can only be advised why a decision was made. There used to be a method where they could overturn a planning decision but that's gone.

When I was living in Albania I saw it everywhere.

I had to send a parcel home at one point so I pottered down to the post office and there was always a plain clothes guy inside with a sub machine gun. I assumed he was a cop.

I looked at the prices, weighed the parcel and counted it out but the woman behind the counter didn't speak English and was trying to tell me something. Eventually I figured out that the price was actually the old one and the real one was 10% higher.

So I paid it and the woman immediately handed the extra to the guy with the gun. He was a Mafioso hired by the post office franchisee to protect the cash on pension day and took his cut from every transaction.

It was remarkably transparent. Corruption in Albania is so endemic and organised crime so widespread that there's effectively no petty crime.

You could quite easily leave your door open all day without any fear. Especially as the rich foreigner.

@makikomi, I was in the DF myself, in the 80s and 90s and the amount of theft that went on was eye-watering, especially of rations. The catering system was rotten to the core. As for things like contracts for services and supply, that was also rotten. I recall one company wanting to supply a certain type of gun, that had a special application and they took in several Officers who had retired and suddenly, they got the contract. When it came to vehicle contracts, certain senior officers began to recieve new cars, when the favoured brand of truck was changed in favour of the company that made trucks and cars..........as for the Gardai, a petrol station near where I work is "known" to be under unofficial Garda protection, as it has been noticed that it seems to feed a huge amount of Gardai. It was raided once by criminals and they were caught in a miraculously short time and it has never been touched since, despite it handling a huge cash flow.......what gives Ireland the appearance of not being corrupt is that the average person does not have to routinely bribe a Garda / soldier / civil servant /college lecturer / teacher / town planner to do their job. By and large, they do their job without bribery, unlike in many countries, where bribery is as natural as breathing. Ireland's corruption is of a softer variety; a sportsman getting a cushy job or planning permission or a publican's license because he's a star on a county team; nepotism in the Gardai, Defence forces, Aer Lingus, ESB, OPW, BNM and a host of other organisations, as a given; when an employer has a vacancy and gets a call asking him to "look after" a son or daughter from someone's family because they are prominent in the Gah or farming or medicine or even just because the candidate is from "our" parish and you'd hate to give the job to anyone else, even if they are better qualified or experienced.......as an example of witnessing corruption, I saw and heard a painting contractor, who was in a queue up to the door of a foreman's Land Cruiser, ask for the painting contract for three blocks of apartments going up. He said that he would paint out "the lot, for one apartment". They shook hands and he was told, "Start Monday and see me". None of the twenty odd people around batted an eyelid, as they all had wish lists. We like to think that we are clean, but we Irish are as corrupt as anyone.

Hedgelayer wrote: »

Engineer's just out of college working on building site's during the boom.

Some couldn't even figure out how to open a measuring tape, signing of half built houses.

Not even knowing how long cement takes to harden, the list goes on....

I think you're confusing corruption with incompetence there.

Pretty sure this was corruption.
Local family, the father is friends with a retired (still very active) TD, they have been involved in plenty of fundraisers etc. for the replacement TD.
The children were looking to buy houses around 2006 ish.
One of the offspring got on a housing list (family fairly wealthy and from a reasonably wealthy area of the locality).
Got a house on the housing list pretty quickly.
Under the agreement, they had to live there for 10 -12 years (I think) before they could ever rent it themselves or move out etc..
Within a month (after painting it and decorating it), they were renting it out.
Using the income from that, they got on another half-ownership type list (within a year) and moved in and lived there.
This decent sized house was suspected of having pyrite in the foundations. Moved out for a couple of months to get house sorted and stayed in parents while claiming hotel money (meh).
Never moved back in.
Struck a deal with the local council to rent it to them for xx years at price (I think was also under some sort of agreement of terms under half-ownership that could not be rented), and went in to bank and got 'another' mortgage for an apartment (anything else would be taking the p*ss).
Three properties (that I know of), and while this all was happening, was in a mediocre job, with basic qualifications and lost first then second job.
Other offspring also got a property, (on an affordable housing block) but I can't say for definite if it was one, also rented from an early stage, and they haven't lived there for a long time.

I felt like posting this in the "how does someone in their 30's afford a house" thread a few times. Saw this thread tonight.

Experienced it very recently

Went to the bank to apply for a mortgage and the well dressed lady, without even a hint of subtlety, told me I’d need a 10% “deposit” to get a mortgage.

From speaking to others I was lucky as some were charged up to 20%. I got some kind of introductory offer designed to pull you into the web

Nothing wrong with greasing the wheels a little.

Wheeliebin30 wrote: »

20% if you’re a second time buyer.

10% if first.

Well known and not one bit corrupt.

Whoosh

Aryanna Tangy Nostril wrote: »

Seriously I've no idea what you mean, as regards having never heard of something I go by this saying

If you haven't seen it with your own eyes or heard it with your own ears, don't invent it in your small mind and spread it with you big mouth.

I'm very proud of my job and the work we do and I don't listen to tittle tattle or spread it.

Not a great saying, dude. Bit long-winded and not very memorable.

As for the army, let’s not pretend it’s a difficult job. I know a fair few fellas who did tours. Most of the time is spent chatting and getting a tan. It’s toy soldier stuff.

mikemac2 wrote: »

Applying for internal jobs that were already filled but they had to interview a few losers to tick a box.

Been done to me and seen it done to others

Im not a teacher but think teachers have this worst of all.

I was applying for a teaching job. My 90 yr old grand-aunt was in a nursing home and was asking me, during a visit how the job hunt was going. (Back almost 18 years ago btw)
I was telling her about different ones i had seen advertised. She said "oh Fr. Drinkygambler is parish priest there".
He used to be her priest but had moved back years before, closer to his home place.
Anyway, fast forward two months she rang me because she heard the job hunt was still going on. When she asked about the interview with Fr. Drinkygambler and i told her i didn't get the job, her response was "well that is the useless fúcker and me after sending him €50!"

Closest I've ever got to corruption!

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

Not a great saying, dude. Bit long-winded and not very memorable.

As for the army, let’s not pretend it’s a difficult job. I know a fair few fellas who did tours. Most of the time is spent chatting and getting a tan. It’s toy soldier stuff.

That lot are still bitching about having to camp out for a couple of nights (in the middle of summer!!) during the Pope's visit.

Dedicated and professional my arse.

Remember the deluge of compensation claims that were made because their guns made a loud noise when fired?

A complete laughing stock.