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Microsoft Denies Paying Nigerians $400K To Ditch Linux
Da Massive writes "Microsoft has denied paying a Nigerian contractor $400,000 in a bid to retard Linux's movement into the government sector. Media reports alleged that Microsoft had proposed paying that sum to a government contractor under a joint marketing agreement last year, in order to persuade the contractor to replace Linux OS with Windows on thousands of school laptops. Although a joint marketing agreement was drafted to document the best practices for using technology in education, it was never executed, said a Microsoft regional manager for Africa. It became clear, he added, that one customer wanted a Linux OS."
$400k to convince one government contractor seems like a lot to fork out. Most bribes, especially in third world countries, are had for less. Not that I'd put it past Microsoft to pull something underhanded like this, it's just that poor economic decisions aren't one of their hallmarks. Sorry, but I have to side with Bill on this -- it just doesn't pass the sniff test. $400k is enough money to live like a king or queen in those economic situations, and probably better than most government officials; the average per-year income in that country is just over $2k.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
I don't think so.... Sometimes they use 3rd party a la pay pal (and no, this is no joke) to make sure both party fulfill their task according to the contract.
I was born in Nigeria and my dad worked there for many years. He will tell you that the Government then (1971) was corrupt and would sell their own mothers for a belly full of ruin (that is, a glass of whisky). We have seen nothing since then to change our minds.
I've never been there, but my girlfried was born and raised there. She goes back for visits to her family now and then.
She'd agree with you.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
I haven't been to Nigeria but it sounds similar to a variety of other places. Once people are poor enough and the government is corrupt enough, bribery becomes acceptable and the whole thing is self-fuelling.
Jobs where bribes are likely become highly sought after. People won't get paid much in those positions because employers already know that they'll make up the rest from bribes, and people who bribe them accept it because they'd just as happily take a similar job and do the same thing if they could, since they can't do anything to change it.
I'm not 100% sure that avoiding doing business in highly corrupt countries is the complete way to go. In some ways it seems that influence from businesses used to less corrupt environments is what might finally change things. Exactly how much a company like Microsoft should play by Nigeria's rules is a difficult question -- it's also at their own risk, because if they're not careful, another corrupt official could come and screw them over or extract more and more money from them for a random reason at any time. As long as corruption continues to exist, though, it'll always be a gamble trying to promote something like Free Software in a country like Nigeria.
Probably, but a prosecution is almost unpossible. First, the US is unlikely to investigate if there is no other interested party in the US to stink. Second, as I pointed out, evidence is hard to come by. The scheme roughly works like this
a) you meet someone, who isn't related in any "official way"
b) you two agree about the setup
c) a "public tender" is constructed by the government so that other participant are excluded
d) a chain of companies may be set up, usually offshore, so that it is harder to track where the money goes (and there is more than 1 jurisdiction involved)
e) if anything at all comes to light, the local employees are dumped. I'd probably guess they aren't prosecutable under the act you quote.
If MS really made an offer, probably the partner had very good connections to someone and was very "stubborn" on the linux thing. That, or the Nigerian M$ manager really roots for linux.
I started writing it in CAPSLOCK but then I remembered the lameness filter. And I didn't screw up the grammar because it was supposed to be sent to Nigeria from Microsoft, not the other way around. But oh well.
John
That is often why people say things like "we entered into a joint venture with local partner who can supply local knowledge". It means they have the right contacts and will take the blame in the unlikely event that the bribe comes to light.
Does the US government actually bother to prosecute these cases? Britain has similar laws but government is not really bothered about enforcing them, and has even pressurised the police into dropping investigations (the BAE Saudi bribes case last year).