Mate imo your dead right worked in indo late 80s to late 90s for big time aus us and euro oil and gas company jobs the client didn't pay anyone from my knowledge. But by fuck we all did and I mean every contractor no matter how big ( won't mention names obviously) but everyone knows the culprits are the biggest euro and us maincons in the world to small subcontractors like myself. But shit dose get built obviously and cheaper than in aus,us,or Europe. Although i haven't worked in Africa id imagine its similar. So stop fucking around with the ml. And let the construction corporation begin. everyone makes money. Is it that hard?It's a full blown culture of corruption they just think they're doing what everyone does, even the regular people seem have a bizzare sense that's it's sort of OK because it's just what everyone does. I guess they would do it too if they were in a position to do so. So there seems to be a level of sympathy for the corrupt who are caught and not much sense of injustice when they also get off pretty much scot-free as should be expected when they can pay off the judge.
I don't think they even think about it in the same terms as us.
The cops don't get paid so they extort money out of the people as do the military and everyone else in public office/government or any sort of position of power. I'm not even sure you'd call it extortion, just the way of things. It's mental.
One article I posted a while back was saying that the traffic cops in Kinshasa who are straight are beloved by the people and so receive 'gifts' instead of bribes.
I bet it's an alien concept over there that some foreign company can come in and receive anything without paying off the appropriate officials.