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EU Commission: Corruption Across EU Costs €120 Billion
cold fjord writes with news that the EU has completed its first report on corruption in member states, and the results aren't looking too good. From the article: "'The extent of corruption in Europe is 'breathtaking' and it costs the EU economy at least 120bn euros (£99bn) annually, the European Commission says. EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem has presented a full report on the problem. She said the true cost of corruption was 'probably much higher' than € 120bn. Three-quarters of Europeans surveyed for the Commission study said that corruption was widespread, and more than half said the level had increased. 'The extent of the problem in Europe is breathtaking, although Sweden is among the countries with the least problems,' Ms Malmstroem wrote in Sweden's Goeteborgs-Posten daily. The cost to the EU economy is equivalent to the bloc's annual budget. For the report the Commission studied corruption in all 28 EU member states. The Commission says it is the first time it has done such a survey. "
Why are countries most affected by the debt crisis also the most corrupt?
I thought Edward Snowden was part of the corruption commission...... Or are we just talking financial corruption?
I think your calculator needs new batteries.
You gotta add at least one digit to that.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
120 billion euro? Internets, you so funny.
To put things in perspective:
1. Estimates of just medicare/medicaid fraud in the US easily approach $100 billion. I'd bet those estimates are conservative.
2. Medicare/medicaid spending is only about a fifth of the US budget. (That doesn't necessarily mean that total US fraud is 5 times the above figure, but suggests it's much larger than $100B.).
3. The Eurozone's GDP is about equal to (slightly larger than) that of the US.
Put it all together, and tell me with a straight face that fraud in the Eurozone is 120 billion euro (about $160 billion). Keep in mind that for every Sweden there's an Italy.
Yeah, it's "probably" much higher, like the Broncos "probably" lost.
The commision should resign in shame like last time...
I thought smart people came to Slashdot. I didn't realize Fixed News Fuckwits were paid to troll here too.
You should have sharted. It would have been more useful than your ODS garbage.
One day I feel I'm ahead of the wheel / the next it's rolling over me / I can get back on / I can get back on
Who needs corruption? We've got lobbyists!
Try like 38 Trillion if you do a little Math on the LIBOR rigging.
None of these people EVER go to jail.
Remember that when you go to get a small business loan and want to work for yourself, instead of going on Welfare and working 50 hour weeks at 4 different jobs.
Sorry we can't give you a loan, you are not Microsoft, or McDonalds.
Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.
Pardon my ignorance, as I'm not American, but I'm confused about this. I thought that the two parts of the contention that you quoted were the "true" parts. Ie. that the website cost taxpayers millions, and that it was a no-bid contract. The part I thought was debunked was that there was any connection between Michelle Obama and this former classmate. Yet, you were modded insightful for calling the OP a fuckwit based on his first two premises...multiple times. What did I miss...?
Oh please Bush and Obama are amateurs compared to DOD. We are talking BILLIONS in price hikes, overruns,kick backs, look up what went on with the M114 or M60A2 to see how REAL pros do that corruption, sheeit they knew they were turkeys before they had even left the testing ground and STILL bought it, or the M247 Sergeant York where not a damned thing worked and it failed to even hit a stationary target yet STILL got sold, because the fix was in!
So you can wave your little donkey and elephant flags all you want, the guys making the REAL money don't change every election, they stay right there in DC making bank on gov side then the lobby side.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
In the first bidding round CGI apparently won a competitive bidding between 4 companies (CGI, IBM, QSSI, and Computer Sciences).
However, after CMS dumped CGI, it brought on Accenture. Technically, the way that Accenture was hired was a no-bid contract (because the normal government bidding process rules were bypassed because they would have taken at least 6 months and that delay would have been disaster). Since there was no competitive bidding, it's impossible to know what happened, but the smart money is on CMS noting that the California website was working and they picked Accenture.
The real question is though why did Accenture want to do it now (it's a paltry $90M contract) when they weren't one of the original bidding companies? The smart money is that they were promised something bigger if they fixed the mess and what that will be the real story that we will discover what that will cost later...
Let's see how this plays out....
Thanks for that. I guess I have some more reading to do. This whole story just gets crazier every time I hear a new piece of it.
That is what happens when the EU keeps including all kinds of countries in south and eastern Europe that do not have their affairs in order. Where human rights are for those who can afford them and where government employees need the extra tidbits to make a living. And north western Europe pays the cost of it.
"of being extremely fucking likely to be some sort of unscrupulous run-of-the-mill government cronyismish corruption."
What you might call corruption is just another day in DC, We cant elect someone not already infected by this corruption.
you have to read between the lines. OP was a douche. Nobody likes douches. Myself, I don't know any europeans with corruption, so I can't speak to the accuracy of this report.
tons of stuff that is called corruption over here is seen as harmless lobbying and such on the other side of the pond.
EU Commission: Corruption Across EU Costs €120 Billion
Swiss banking commission: Corruption Across EU Earns us interest on €100 Billion
The website was made by a company that was contracted under the bush administration to do general IT service work for the government. They did a piss poor job at substantial expense, to be sure, but it was not a no-bid contract - they were one of four eligible companies which bid on the contract for the website.
The no-bid and Michelle Obama nonsense is parroted by people who consume right wing news (propaganda) and mistakenly believe it to be true.
You forgot the most important category: those hoping to exploit the starving criminals and natives.
Not really. The voyage alone was such a hazard that one wouldn't undertake it unless staying at home was even more dangerous.
After traveling became safe you still risked all your life savings (If you had any.) by going there. Those who did were those who'd rather risk it overseas than stay and risk it back home.
It's not really until airplanes became a viable form of transportation that people who weren't in a tough spot started to move between the continents.
Great to know corruption costs so much money (as if we didn't know that already)..
But what are they gonna do about it? I guess the won't as the corruption is in high places and they want to continue receiving their scammoney..
We do not have "corruption commission" in the States, therefore we do not have any solid figure of how much corruption is costing the American taxpayers.
I hear you guys call this "campaign contribution". Maybe that will help you find some figures -- I am told they are rather outlandish.
Gosh, thanks. That must be why the other ships call me Meatfucker -- GCU Grey Area (Eccentric)
Obviously you didn't get the Bunga Bunga Party invite :D
Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.
You do not understand what the European Union is. It is not an economic alliance. It's sole purpose is to prevent large war breaking out in Europe (cue WWI and WW2). Efficiency, anti-corruption, economic competitiveness are all tertiary compared to the great aim of peace, complete with doves carrying olive branches, lions and lambs napping together and whatnot.
If the EU ever falls apart, Britain, France and Germany will jump at each other's throat, Russia will invade Eastern Europe and the gunpowder barrel called the Balkans will simply explode. The use of nuclear weapons will lead to WORLDWIDE destruction.
Therefore EU must be kept together, no matter how much it costs and how much of that budget goes to waste. Anyhow, if a corrput person receives millions, he will spend them on Ferrari, yacht, villa and gambling. The money soon returns to the circulation in the economic sphere and no long-term loss is evident.
You forgot the religious zealots, a major early group of migrants that is still very influential in contemporary American society.
Wow, what a conspiracy theory bullshit. Like any other sovereign state or supranational organization, the EU is not required to be audited by a chartered accountancy, but is audited by the ECA. Every year the ECA signs off the accounts provisionally, the only problem is that the current rules for the EU account audit require a 100% compliance for a full sign off, which is something no entity will ever achieve. You just need one person to lose a single receipt and you are non-compliant. Only so far, nobody has seen the need to figure some more realistic rules, and until then the ECA report every year is an invitation to sensationalist media and conspiracy theorists. There's plenty wrong with the EU, but this really isn't the issue.
Don't worry, the biggest difference is that corruption is legal in the US, while it's illegal in the EU. Apart from that detail, it's business as usual.
It's funny that it's the European Commission talking about corruption. All top-level politicians in Europe are in bed with the business world. They keep trying to pass corporate-friendly legislation and create new tax-evasion routes. Sometimes, it's so blatant that they have to retreat. Often, these legislations pass undetected. Politicians spend some time in public office acting as corporate moles. After that, they are given comfortable positions in corporations as a reward for their good services. This behaviour is publicly known and, honestly I can't see any way out of this shit. If someone tries to change anything, they'll come up with some "sexual scandal" to silence him. Just look at what happened to Hollande because of the tax raises on the rich.
Europe is fucked, just like the USA. The foxes took over the hen house.
Who needs corruption? We've got lobbyists!
That's simply legalised corruption.
We used to have corruption, then we legalized it through the Citizens United vs FEC case. It IS the system now.
Yeah. The way they tricked him into repeatedly getting onto that bike and going to the same house with the same woman in it! If you meant, and just poorly expressed, that the scandal was only revealed because he annoyed the wealthy then you're selectively ignoring the dozens of times that low-tax or pro-business politicians have been outed for scandals.
Having a mistress is not a scandal. What people do in their private sexual lives is not my business. It's a shame that the American puritanism has managed to come across the pond and is being used as a political weapon here in Europe.
Maybe this is a strange concept for you Americans, but most Europeans don't give a fuck about politician's private lives. It's what they do at their work that matters. Anything else is just diversion used by the hidden powers for manipulation.
Americans get uppity about mistresses as it means the politician is compromised in some way. The politician could be blackmailed over it. The politician is not trustworthy. It implies that they are corruptible and have lied and makes us wonder what else they have lied about.
In our military, extra martial affairs are illegal for these very reasons.
Bring back the old version of slashdot.
is not that bad ;)
You can find out how much the campaign contributions are, but finding out how much they cost you is much more difficult. A $1m campaign contribution would normally bring more than $1m of benefits. How much more is the unknown number.
I don't really care much about their private lives, but if he's diddling a young intern, we have a problem.
Just read a GAO report. They are usually pretty solid.
I'm wondering if you actually read the NY Times article you linked to, and have you read anything since? stunning-new-report-undermines-central-gop-obamacare-claim
Corporate tax rate is relatively low. 22% in Sweden vs 40% in the United States.
http://www.kpmg.com/global/en/...
Don't get me wrong, I'd confidently place a socialist label on Sweden as a whole but it's not as socialist as some might think.
ayottesoftware.com
All that proves is that a man bad a hiding his mistress is also likely bad at hiding his corruption.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
TFA says:
The cost to the EU economy is equivalent to the bloc's annual budget.
What is this number? It is supposed to compare to 120 bn EUR of corruption, but the sum of EU member states budgets is much much higher. Is it the budget of the EU itself?
There is nothing wrong with my English.
You want to get all grammar-nazi on me? I can play that game too:
The word "America" is supposed to have a capital first letter, because it's a proper noun.
The present-tense form of the word "corrupt" is "corrupt", not "corrupted".