8. The ‘full mouth’: A service provider to an eastern African government got a lucrative contract to upgrade the public radio broadcasting infrastructures. The contract included purchase of new equipment, also installation, testing and internal approval of the upgraded network by the technical staff of the national broadcaster.
The provider instantly knew that the most difficult part of the contract is the internal approval process. The approvals could be intentionally delayed, and he would be blackmailed for bribes in order to get the necessary approvals to be paid.
The provider project manager instantly thought about the best way to deal with the issue. He decided to contract the technical staff of the broadcaster for the new equipment installation, instead of using a third party company, as initially planned.
He secretly convinced a team of ten senior technicians from the broadcaster to do the installation during their job time for a good compensation. The technicians accepted.
Things went smoothly and made good business sense for the provider. The technicians who would later maintain the network were the ones who have installed the new equipments. The provider got all approvals almost instantly and got paid in time.
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