WE CANNOT HAVE DEMOCRACY WITHOUT RULE OF LAW. WE CANNOT BE FIRST WORLD WITHOUT RULE OF LAW......we are neither right now. Make sure a Rule of Law candidate is running in State/City attorney general races! Maryland and Baltimore does not have any good people running.....they are all crony!
Regarding the Baltimore Board of Estimates crimes against humanity:
THAT'S RIGHT JACK YOUNG------RUN OUT OF THIS MEETING! This was shouted at the Baltimore City Board of Estimates meeting that ended with shouts of fraud and corruption by business and justice.....
I talked with a member of the media forced to witness this den of thieves who stated he hated having to come to this meeting and watching the garbage that is Baltimore City public works. You would have to be a blind beggar from South Baltimore not to see what is absolute fraud and corruption. Luckily, the Maryland Minority Contractor lawyer has been pushed to shout out as his clients become an endangered species in Baltimore and Maryland. We welcomed his and his client's outburst of charges of fraud and corruption at the end of a protest of yet another openly preferential bid award. Yet another contractor was left speechless at the level of injustice in this awarding process that is completely arbitrary-----no Rule of Law in this process!
FORTUNATELY FOR THE CITIZENS OF BALTIMORE WE ARE GOING TO SEE PUBLIC JUSTICE MOVE THIS TO COURT TO CHALLENGE THIS BOARD OF ESTIMATE'S PROCESS OF BID AWARD. WE WILL NEED TO TAKE IT ALL THE WAY.
For those not familiar Baltimore has a Finance Department with people having duties of taking a long list of 'OBJECTIVES' that need to be met in moving the bid forward through award. It is this list of OBJECTIVES that makes the entire process so arbitrary as to allow this Finance Department to send the bid anyway it chooses. This Board of Estimates does not stop there-----it completely ignores even the most basic of standards required in the process. So, a contractor meets minority guidelines but then it doesn't-----a contractor is low bid and then it isn't------a contractor fails to complete application properly and is disqualified and then it isn't. IT IS ONE GREAT BIG MESS WITH NO RULE OF LAW----IT IS COMPLETELY ARBITRARY.
So, today's victim of these bid award violations made clear that the problem and protest was about X and the mayor's lawyers kept turning it to Y.....which is what they do all the time. They spin the argument away from the issue put forward just as a politician asked a question on an issue and then answers in a way having nothing to do with the issue. SAME THING. So, both the contractor and the lawyer pointed each time to the spinning of point ------the issue most apparent for people not familiar with details being that most contractors bidding for this work were disqualified for one reason or another but the contractor winning the award had a clear violation that disqualified them but the Board moved that bid forward anyway. So, they pretended the contractor winning the award was not disqualified. The protesting contractor tried to make other points on a constantly moving bid amount that I do not know the specifics but on face seemed legitimate.
The point of value for citizens of Baltimore is that the bidding process is so rigged that contractors either do not even bid anymore....which is the purpose of this level of corruption, or if they lose with prejudice, they do not protest because you are making the same people using an arbitrary system mad and they will blacklist you. VOILA-----A CAPTURED PUBLIC WORKS BIDDING PROCESS. THIS IS WHAT THEY DO IN THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES! I spoke earlier about the constant use of a contractor winning an award for low bid and coming back for extensions over and over.....
The solution is REBUILD THE PUBLIC IN PUBLIC WORKS FOR GOODNESS SAKE! WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU ALLOW A SYSTEM LIKE THIS EXIST JUST SO PRIVATE CONTRACTORS CAN GET RICH ON FRAUD AND CORRUPTION? We need to stop outsourcing our public works and services and simply rebuild a public sector -------public employees that are the consultants, public employees that are the designers, public employees that know the logistics......THAT WORKED THROUGH THE MOST EXPANSIVE PUBLIC WORKS PROJECTS IN THE MID-1900s! It was in the late 1970s-1980s that gave us this move to privatization of all that is public. We attracted the best of the best to public service with strong wages and benefits----we had projects done with little waste and fraud because the people directing it were on salary, not working for profit (OK, I know there was public fraud but not pervasive). THIS IS THE GOAL WE HAVE TODAY---A RETURN TO A STRONG PUBLIC SECTOR WITH REGULATIONS AND PUBLIC JUSTICE but you will not get that with neo-liberals and crony pols!
SIMPLY RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE IN ALL PRIMARIES AGAINST NEO-LIBERALS!
Baltimore is a NYC wanta-be and is run by Bloomberg and Wall Street by the extension of Johns Hopkins. The same thing happening in this article is happening in Baltimore. THESE ARE NEO-LIBERAL STATES FOLKS------STOP ALLOWING A NEO-LIBERAL DNC CHOOSE YOUR CANDIDATES. RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE!
N.Y. City Council Infested With Fraud, Corruption
April 29, 2008 |
Each of New York’s 51 council members gets a chunk of cash that can be spent at the discretion of the council member. Ideally, the money is supposed to provide valuable community services but no one bothers to follow up, leaving the system rife with fraud, corruption and conflict of interest.
So far, at least seven of the city’s 51 lawmakers have been caught distributing millions of public dollars to relatives, spouses and friends. One lawmaker, Larry Seabrook of the Bronx, actually gave nearly $1 million to a suspicious group—Bronx African American Chamber of Commerce—with the same address as his office.
A pair of councilmen from Manhattan and Queens, each gave questionable nonprofits $400,000. One group was operated by the lawmaker’s top aides and the other featured the councilman’s sister on the board of directors. A Brooklyn Councilman gave $356,000 to a nonprofit operated by his chief of staff, who got caught embezzling $145,000 and another Brooklyn councilman gave a group that employs his wife nearly $200,000.
Incredibly, the council’s speaker acknowledges that some of the council’s so-called discretionary funds were assigned to fake nonprofits to hold the money for future distribution to real groups. A local paper sums the scandal up quite well, writing in an editorial that “the stench of waste, fraud and corruption wafting out of the City Council grows ranker by the day….”
_________________________________________________
The cronyism is top down which is why local politicians think they have no worries. We know that all public service systems are now outsourced and government agencies are run by directors who hand those agencies over to corporations to run. This is why nothing works when the government is doing it------THE GOVERNMENT IS NOW ALL PRIVATE CONTRACTORS WORKING SIMPLY TO MOVE MONEY TO CONNECTED PEOPLE, NOT GETTING THE BEST PEOPLE FOR A JOB. See how that corresponds to my Baltimore Board of Estimates meeting?
We elected Obama to clean this up-----he ran on a holding corporations responsible campaign-----and he ignored it and has become the biggest VISIGOTH in US history. Huffington Post stated this administration is the most corrupt in US History!
WE CAN CHANGE THIS BY NOT ALLOWING A NEO-LIBERAL DNC CHOOSE OUR CANDIDATES------WE MUST RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE!
We have tens of trillions in stolen corporate fraud to recover for goodness sake-----stop letting them do this!
August 23, 2012
Whistleblowers (2011) claims DOD official is incompetent and tyrannical rings a sympathetic chord with DSS’s problems (2012)
I ran across this story from August 29, 2011 (in my mail box, sent to me by a reader), which is remarkably like what I am being told is going on in DSS (Defense Security Service).
Note similarities, those of you familiar with the problems DSS seems to be propagating at an alarming rate:
Managers pushing out senior employees who have the knowledge, training and experience to do the job in order to make room for often unprepared, untrained, equally incompetent cronies from another work environment. Cronyism can be hiring relatives, or can be hiring members of a same church, college class, club, or military service branch etc. It does seem like DSS is having more than its share of such problems.
It seems like within DSS, as in this story, some crony seeking managers like people around who can spy on other employees for them, and be loyal to the manager in charge, even if they aren’t capable of doing the job they ostensibly were hired to do. In the case of DSS, how is this helping DSS protect our technology and oversee government contracts? (Answer: It’s not! But it may well be meeting the goals of certain defense contractors who don’t want any oversight anyway.) GFS
__________________________________________
This article shows how bad the fraud and corruption is in Baltimore. Much of the fraud and corruption that passes through the Board of Estimates involves Baltimore real estate. As I've said before, there is an orchestrated effort to move downtown and city center real estate into the hands of connected people. Real Estate agents in communities hit hard with foreclosures.....mainly underserved and black communities.....say they cannot earn a living because the real estate is being captured by the city and handed by the city to selected developers. You read in meeting minutes of one private non-profit after another getting these houses for a $1 when taxpayers often paid tens of thousands to get the property and maintain it. THIS IS NOT VACANTS TO VALUE.....
WE HAVE PLENTY OF REVENUE IN THE CITY TO BUILD OUT MUCH THAT IS GIVEN AWAY. CAN YOU IMAGINE WHAT RECOVERING BILLIONS IN CORPORATE FRAUD AND STOPPING FUTURE FRAUD WOULD MAKE THE GOVERNMENT COFFERS LOOK LIKE?
The Most Powerful Man in Baltimore Real Estate?
2 October 16, 2011 by Baltimore Slumlord Watch
An interesting way to describe Paul Graziano, director of Baltimore’s Housing Authority.
We received an email from the Baltimore Real Estate Investors Association, inviting us to a meeting where Paul Graziano will speak to the group (including slumlords and owners of blighted vacant homes) and address questions regarding Section 8 housing, vacant homes, and other topics of interest to property investors.
It’s inappropriate for the head of a city agency to be addressing a group that is run by a man whose business practices are questionable at best. Joe DiMaggio is currently fighting a lead paint lawsuit, has failed to register rental properties, and other housing code violation lawsuits. He also has an open warrant for failing to appear in housing court.
Again, Mr. Graziano has shown bad judgement by agreeing to address this group as a colleague and not as the head of a regulatory agency — and he has again shown his lack of ethics by maintaining relationships with people who have shown such a blatant disregard for our city and its taxpaying residents.
__________________________________________
HIS HEAD WOULD SPIN IN BALTIMORE!!!
Originally published August 07, 2013
How Deep is Corruption? by Harry C. Alford
I have seen examples of corruption throughout my life. Some has been petty and some had potentially serious implications and outcomes.
I have avoided or turned down 96 percent of the attempts made on me but I am sure there are many who haven’t. How do you avoid it? It is easy, according to then-Mozambique President Joaquim Chissano: “Don’t pay any bribes; there won’t be any bribery.” In other words the offers will be made to us all and the key to avoiding it is to just turn them down and walk away. I have taken his advice to heart.
A great spawning grounds for corruption are the minority business programs throughout our nation. City, county, state and federal governments-- and corporations-- have some form of outreach and technical assistance for businesses owned by racial/socio economic disadvantaged groups. Most require participants to be “certified” as a minority, female, etc. type of business ownership. There is so much fraud involved in many of these applications that we can’t count them all. Cheating applicant, cheating employee overseeing the program and usually a cheating White- owned seasoned business conspiring with the others. Every one of these programs has some form of corruption in their daily process. Some do it for quick bucks and some do it to prolong their racist attitudes and/or greed.
I have had experience with mayoral offices during my travels. The Thomas Barnes administration in Gary, Ind. was a trip. They would demand my members who had won contracts competitively to pay a “fee” before they received payment. One protesting member was told by an employee in the deputy mayor’s office, “What? Do you think we just give these contracts away?” He finally got his money after filing a claim in court. They gave him a check for the money due as he walked up the court house steps.
My experience with Mayor Willie Brown’s office of San Francisco was quite interesting. We set up an introductory meeting with the mayor. While I was waiting in the mayor’s office, a unscrupulous guy comes up to me and said, “I’m Charlie, best friend and adviser of the mayor, you need to meet with me outside before your meeting.” As we went outside the building I stated, “I know what you are trying to do. So, just go to hell and I am out of here.” (I don’t know for a fact that Mayor Brown was aware of what Charlie was doing.)
There was a similar experience with Mayor Marc Morial’s office in New Orleans. We called for a meeting and they said to wait for a formal response. A couple of days later, I received a phone call from this private attorney. He said that the mayor would like me to see him first. So, I went to his office and we had a discussion.
What it amounted to was that the NBCC must hire him and use him as the communicator with the mayor. Paying legal fees in order to speak to an elected official? I don’t think so! A few years later this attorney was indicted for his shenanigans and spent some good time in prison. (Again, I can’t say the mayor knew that he was soliciting work from us.)
There is much corruption going on with the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). This is similar to a free trade treaty. AGOA-certified nations in Africa may export goods to America without paying any duties. There are two big abuses going on. 1. German auto manufacturer BMW has built a plant in South Africa for the sole purpose of shipping the product to the United States duty free. In essence, a European firm is benefitting from a program meant for African firms.
India has jumped into this AGOA action. The Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius has been given “nominal status” as an African nation. India ships tons of raw products to this island of mainly Indian expatriates. The finished products are shipped to the U.S. under AGOA benefits.
How many trillions of dollars are taken out of our general economy because of corruption? How many good decisions and acts of leadership are lost to bribery, kickbacks and many other forms of corruption? It is an attitude that focuses on greed, quick money and a life style of cheating. You can’t get to Heaven living that way. Sooner or later most of the corrupt operators will get their justice. Too bad, most will be replaced with others of the same ilk. Just how deep is corruption?
Too deep!
Harry Alford is the co-founderpresident/CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce
___________________________________________
The US now has the categories listed below as a former Rule of Law nation.....but we know all categories below have no active justice.
What is the Rule of Law?
The rule of law is a system in which the following four universal principles are upheld:
Why the Rule of Law Matters to Everyone The rule of law is the underlying framework of rules and rights that make prosperous and fair societies possible. The rule of law is a system in which no one, including government, is above the law; where laws protect fundamental rights; and where justice is accessible to all.
To learn more about how the rule of law impacts the lives and work of all people, click here.
Factors Limited Government Powers
In a society governed by the rule of law, the government and its officials and agents are subject to and held accountable under the law. Modern societies have developed systems of checks and...
Learn more
Absence of Corruption
The absence of corruption - conventionally defined as the use of public power for private gain - is one of the hallmarks of a society governed by the rule of law, as corruption is a manifestation...
Learn more
Order and Security
Human security is one of the defining aspects of any rule of law society. Protecting human security, mainly assuring the security of persons and property, is a fundamental function of the state....
Learn more
Fundamental Rights
Under the rule of law, fundamental rights must be effectively guaranteed. A system of positive law that fails to respect core human rights established under international law is at best “rule by...
Learn more
Open Government
Open government is essential to the rule of law. It involves engagement, access, participation, and collaboration between the government and its citizens, and plays a crucial role in the promotion...
Learn more
Regulatory Enforcement
Public enforcement of government regulations is pervasive in modern societies as a method to induce conduct. A critical feature of the rule of law is that such rules are upheld and properly...
Learn more
Civil Justice
In a rule of law society, ordinary people should be able to resolve their grievances and obtain remedies in conformity with fundamental rights through formal institutions of justice in a peaceful...
Learn more
Criminal Justice
An effective criminal justice system is a key aspect of the rule of law, as it constitutes the natural mechanism to redress grievances and bring action against individuals for offenses against...
Learn more
Informal Justice
For many countries it is important to acknowledge the role played by traditional, or ‘informal’, systems of law — including traditional, tribal, and religious courts, as well as community-based...
Learn more
Regarding the Baltimore Board of Estimates crimes against humanity:
THAT'S RIGHT JACK YOUNG------RUN OUT OF THIS MEETING! This was shouted at the Baltimore City Board of Estimates meeting that ended with shouts of fraud and corruption by business and justice.....
I talked with a member of the media forced to witness this den of thieves who stated he hated having to come to this meeting and watching the garbage that is Baltimore City public works. You would have to be a blind beggar from South Baltimore not to see what is absolute fraud and corruption. Luckily, the Maryland Minority Contractor lawyer has been pushed to shout out as his clients become an endangered species in Baltimore and Maryland. We welcomed his and his client's outburst of charges of fraud and corruption at the end of a protest of yet another openly preferential bid award. Yet another contractor was left speechless at the level of injustice in this awarding process that is completely arbitrary-----no Rule of Law in this process!
FORTUNATELY FOR THE CITIZENS OF BALTIMORE WE ARE GOING TO SEE PUBLIC JUSTICE MOVE THIS TO COURT TO CHALLENGE THIS BOARD OF ESTIMATE'S PROCESS OF BID AWARD. WE WILL NEED TO TAKE IT ALL THE WAY.
For those not familiar Baltimore has a Finance Department with people having duties of taking a long list of 'OBJECTIVES' that need to be met in moving the bid forward through award. It is this list of OBJECTIVES that makes the entire process so arbitrary as to allow this Finance Department to send the bid anyway it chooses. This Board of Estimates does not stop there-----it completely ignores even the most basic of standards required in the process. So, a contractor meets minority guidelines but then it doesn't-----a contractor is low bid and then it isn't------a contractor fails to complete application properly and is disqualified and then it isn't. IT IS ONE GREAT BIG MESS WITH NO RULE OF LAW----IT IS COMPLETELY ARBITRARY.
So, today's victim of these bid award violations made clear that the problem and protest was about X and the mayor's lawyers kept turning it to Y.....which is what they do all the time. They spin the argument away from the issue put forward just as a politician asked a question on an issue and then answers in a way having nothing to do with the issue. SAME THING. So, both the contractor and the lawyer pointed each time to the spinning of point ------the issue most apparent for people not familiar with details being that most contractors bidding for this work were disqualified for one reason or another but the contractor winning the award had a clear violation that disqualified them but the Board moved that bid forward anyway. So, they pretended the contractor winning the award was not disqualified. The protesting contractor tried to make other points on a constantly moving bid amount that I do not know the specifics but on face seemed legitimate.
The point of value for citizens of Baltimore is that the bidding process is so rigged that contractors either do not even bid anymore....which is the purpose of this level of corruption, or if they lose with prejudice, they do not protest because you are making the same people using an arbitrary system mad and they will blacklist you. VOILA-----A CAPTURED PUBLIC WORKS BIDDING PROCESS. THIS IS WHAT THEY DO IN THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES! I spoke earlier about the constant use of a contractor winning an award for low bid and coming back for extensions over and over.....
The solution is REBUILD THE PUBLIC IN PUBLIC WORKS FOR GOODNESS SAKE! WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU ALLOW A SYSTEM LIKE THIS EXIST JUST SO PRIVATE CONTRACTORS CAN GET RICH ON FRAUD AND CORRUPTION? We need to stop outsourcing our public works and services and simply rebuild a public sector -------public employees that are the consultants, public employees that are the designers, public employees that know the logistics......THAT WORKED THROUGH THE MOST EXPANSIVE PUBLIC WORKS PROJECTS IN THE MID-1900s! It was in the late 1970s-1980s that gave us this move to privatization of all that is public. We attracted the best of the best to public service with strong wages and benefits----we had projects done with little waste and fraud because the people directing it were on salary, not working for profit (OK, I know there was public fraud but not pervasive). THIS IS THE GOAL WE HAVE TODAY---A RETURN TO A STRONG PUBLIC SECTOR WITH REGULATIONS AND PUBLIC JUSTICE but you will not get that with neo-liberals and crony pols!
SIMPLY RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE IN ALL PRIMARIES AGAINST NEO-LIBERALS!
Baltimore is a NYC wanta-be and is run by Bloomberg and Wall Street by the extension of Johns Hopkins. The same thing happening in this article is happening in Baltimore. THESE ARE NEO-LIBERAL STATES FOLKS------STOP ALLOWING A NEO-LIBERAL DNC CHOOSE YOUR CANDIDATES. RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE!
N.Y. City Council Infested With Fraud, Corruption
April 29, 2008 |
Each of New York’s 51 council members gets a chunk of cash that can be spent at the discretion of the council member. Ideally, the money is supposed to provide valuable community services but no one bothers to follow up, leaving the system rife with fraud, corruption and conflict of interest.
So far, at least seven of the city’s 51 lawmakers have been caught distributing millions of public dollars to relatives, spouses and friends. One lawmaker, Larry Seabrook of the Bronx, actually gave nearly $1 million to a suspicious group—Bronx African American Chamber of Commerce—with the same address as his office.
A pair of councilmen from Manhattan and Queens, each gave questionable nonprofits $400,000. One group was operated by the lawmaker’s top aides and the other featured the councilman’s sister on the board of directors. A Brooklyn Councilman gave $356,000 to a nonprofit operated by his chief of staff, who got caught embezzling $145,000 and another Brooklyn councilman gave a group that employs his wife nearly $200,000.
Incredibly, the council’s speaker acknowledges that some of the council’s so-called discretionary funds were assigned to fake nonprofits to hold the money for future distribution to real groups. A local paper sums the scandal up quite well, writing in an editorial that “the stench of waste, fraud and corruption wafting out of the City Council grows ranker by the day….”
_________________________________________________
The cronyism is top down which is why local politicians think they have no worries. We know that all public service systems are now outsourced and government agencies are run by directors who hand those agencies over to corporations to run. This is why nothing works when the government is doing it------THE GOVERNMENT IS NOW ALL PRIVATE CONTRACTORS WORKING SIMPLY TO MOVE MONEY TO CONNECTED PEOPLE, NOT GETTING THE BEST PEOPLE FOR A JOB. See how that corresponds to my Baltimore Board of Estimates meeting?
We elected Obama to clean this up-----he ran on a holding corporations responsible campaign-----and he ignored it and has become the biggest VISIGOTH in US history. Huffington Post stated this administration is the most corrupt in US History!
WE CAN CHANGE THIS BY NOT ALLOWING A NEO-LIBERAL DNC CHOOSE OUR CANDIDATES------WE MUST RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE!
We have tens of trillions in stolen corporate fraud to recover for goodness sake-----stop letting them do this!
August 23, 2012
Whistleblowers (2011) claims DOD official is incompetent and tyrannical rings a sympathetic chord with DSS’s problems (2012)
I ran across this story from August 29, 2011 (in my mail box, sent to me by a reader), which is remarkably like what I am being told is going on in DSS (Defense Security Service).
Note similarities, those of you familiar with the problems DSS seems to be propagating at an alarming rate:
Managers pushing out senior employees who have the knowledge, training and experience to do the job in order to make room for often unprepared, untrained, equally incompetent cronies from another work environment. Cronyism can be hiring relatives, or can be hiring members of a same church, college class, club, or military service branch etc. It does seem like DSS is having more than its share of such problems.
It seems like within DSS, as in this story, some crony seeking managers like people around who can spy on other employees for them, and be loyal to the manager in charge, even if they aren’t capable of doing the job they ostensibly were hired to do. In the case of DSS, how is this helping DSS protect our technology and oversee government contracts? (Answer: It’s not! But it may well be meeting the goals of certain defense contractors who don’t want any oversight anyway.) GFS
__________________________________________
This article shows how bad the fraud and corruption is in Baltimore. Much of the fraud and corruption that passes through the Board of Estimates involves Baltimore real estate. As I've said before, there is an orchestrated effort to move downtown and city center real estate into the hands of connected people. Real Estate agents in communities hit hard with foreclosures.....mainly underserved and black communities.....say they cannot earn a living because the real estate is being captured by the city and handed by the city to selected developers. You read in meeting minutes of one private non-profit after another getting these houses for a $1 when taxpayers often paid tens of thousands to get the property and maintain it. THIS IS NOT VACANTS TO VALUE.....
WE HAVE PLENTY OF REVENUE IN THE CITY TO BUILD OUT MUCH THAT IS GIVEN AWAY. CAN YOU IMAGINE WHAT RECOVERING BILLIONS IN CORPORATE FRAUD AND STOPPING FUTURE FRAUD WOULD MAKE THE GOVERNMENT COFFERS LOOK LIKE?
The Most Powerful Man in Baltimore Real Estate?
2 October 16, 2011 by Baltimore Slumlord Watch
An interesting way to describe Paul Graziano, director of Baltimore’s Housing Authority.
We received an email from the Baltimore Real Estate Investors Association, inviting us to a meeting where Paul Graziano will speak to the group (including slumlords and owners of blighted vacant homes) and address questions regarding Section 8 housing, vacant homes, and other topics of interest to property investors.
It’s inappropriate for the head of a city agency to be addressing a group that is run by a man whose business practices are questionable at best. Joe DiMaggio is currently fighting a lead paint lawsuit, has failed to register rental properties, and other housing code violation lawsuits. He also has an open warrant for failing to appear in housing court.
Again, Mr. Graziano has shown bad judgement by agreeing to address this group as a colleague and not as the head of a regulatory agency — and he has again shown his lack of ethics by maintaining relationships with people who have shown such a blatant disregard for our city and its taxpaying residents.
__________________________________________
HIS HEAD WOULD SPIN IN BALTIMORE!!!
Originally published August 07, 2013
How Deep is Corruption? by Harry C. Alford
Harry C. Alford, co-founderpresident/CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce and NNPA Columnist. (Courtesy Photo)
I have seen examples of corruption throughout my life. Some has been petty and some had potentially serious implications and outcomes.
I have avoided or turned down 96 percent of the attempts made on me but I am sure there are many who haven’t. How do you avoid it? It is easy, according to then-Mozambique President Joaquim Chissano: “Don’t pay any bribes; there won’t be any bribery.” In other words the offers will be made to us all and the key to avoiding it is to just turn them down and walk away. I have taken his advice to heart.
A great spawning grounds for corruption are the minority business programs throughout our nation. City, county, state and federal governments-- and corporations-- have some form of outreach and technical assistance for businesses owned by racial/socio economic disadvantaged groups. Most require participants to be “certified” as a minority, female, etc. type of business ownership. There is so much fraud involved in many of these applications that we can’t count them all. Cheating applicant, cheating employee overseeing the program and usually a cheating White- owned seasoned business conspiring with the others. Every one of these programs has some form of corruption in their daily process. Some do it for quick bucks and some do it to prolong their racist attitudes and/or greed.
I have had experience with mayoral offices during my travels. The Thomas Barnes administration in Gary, Ind. was a trip. They would demand my members who had won contracts competitively to pay a “fee” before they received payment. One protesting member was told by an employee in the deputy mayor’s office, “What? Do you think we just give these contracts away?” He finally got his money after filing a claim in court. They gave him a check for the money due as he walked up the court house steps.
My experience with Mayor Willie Brown’s office of San Francisco was quite interesting. We set up an introductory meeting with the mayor. While I was waiting in the mayor’s office, a unscrupulous guy comes up to me and said, “I’m Charlie, best friend and adviser of the mayor, you need to meet with me outside before your meeting.” As we went outside the building I stated, “I know what you are trying to do. So, just go to hell and I am out of here.” (I don’t know for a fact that Mayor Brown was aware of what Charlie was doing.)
There was a similar experience with Mayor Marc Morial’s office in New Orleans. We called for a meeting and they said to wait for a formal response. A couple of days later, I received a phone call from this private attorney. He said that the mayor would like me to see him first. So, I went to his office and we had a discussion.
What it amounted to was that the NBCC must hire him and use him as the communicator with the mayor. Paying legal fees in order to speak to an elected official? I don’t think so! A few years later this attorney was indicted for his shenanigans and spent some good time in prison. (Again, I can’t say the mayor knew that he was soliciting work from us.)
There is much corruption going on with the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). This is similar to a free trade treaty. AGOA-certified nations in Africa may export goods to America without paying any duties. There are two big abuses going on. 1. German auto manufacturer BMW has built a plant in South Africa for the sole purpose of shipping the product to the United States duty free. In essence, a European firm is benefitting from a program meant for African firms.
India has jumped into this AGOA action. The Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius has been given “nominal status” as an African nation. India ships tons of raw products to this island of mainly Indian expatriates. The finished products are shipped to the U.S. under AGOA benefits.
How many trillions of dollars are taken out of our general economy because of corruption? How many good decisions and acts of leadership are lost to bribery, kickbacks and many other forms of corruption? It is an attitude that focuses on greed, quick money and a life style of cheating. You can’t get to Heaven living that way. Sooner or later most of the corrupt operators will get their justice. Too bad, most will be replaced with others of the same ilk. Just how deep is corruption?
Too deep!
Harry Alford is the co-founderpresident/CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce
___________________________________________
The US now has the categories listed below as a former Rule of Law nation.....but we know all categories below have no active justice.
What is the Rule of Law?
The rule of law is a system in which the following four universal principles are upheld:
- The government and its officials and agents as well as individuals and private entities are accountable under the law.
- The laws are clear, publicized, stable and just, are applied evenly, and protect fundamental rights, including the security of persons and property.
- The process by which the laws are enacted, administered and enforced is accessible, fair and efficient.
- Justice is delivered timely by competent, ethical, and independent representatives and neutrals who are of sufficient number, have adequate resources, and reflect the makeup of the communities they serve.
Why the Rule of Law Matters to Everyone The rule of law is the underlying framework of rules and rights that make prosperous and fair societies possible. The rule of law is a system in which no one, including government, is above the law; where laws protect fundamental rights; and where justice is accessible to all.
To learn more about how the rule of law impacts the lives and work of all people, click here.
Factors Limited Government Powers
In a society governed by the rule of law, the government and its officials and agents are subject to and held accountable under the law. Modern societies have developed systems of checks and...
Learn more
Absence of Corruption
The absence of corruption - conventionally defined as the use of public power for private gain - is one of the hallmarks of a society governed by the rule of law, as corruption is a manifestation...
Learn more
Order and Security
Human security is one of the defining aspects of any rule of law society. Protecting human security, mainly assuring the security of persons and property, is a fundamental function of the state....
Learn more
Fundamental Rights
Under the rule of law, fundamental rights must be effectively guaranteed. A system of positive law that fails to respect core human rights established under international law is at best “rule by...
Learn more
Open Government
Open government is essential to the rule of law. It involves engagement, access, participation, and collaboration between the government and its citizens, and plays a crucial role in the promotion...
Learn more
Regulatory Enforcement
Public enforcement of government regulations is pervasive in modern societies as a method to induce conduct. A critical feature of the rule of law is that such rules are upheld and properly...
Learn more
Civil Justice
In a rule of law society, ordinary people should be able to resolve their grievances and obtain remedies in conformity with fundamental rights through formal institutions of justice in a peaceful...
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Criminal Justice
An effective criminal justice system is a key aspect of the rule of law, as it constitutes the natural mechanism to redress grievances and bring action against individuals for offenses against...
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Informal Justice
For many countries it is important to acknowledge the role played by traditional, or ‘informal’, systems of law — including traditional, tribal, and religious courts, as well as community-based...
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