You Mean They Take Bribes in Turkey?
So the Wall Street Journal is reporting with pleasure that at last the Turkish government is cracking down on corrupt customs officials:
For all those companies out there that have been prosecuted for paying bribes to customs officials — who, unlike you, escaped scrutiny because of the jurisdictional limitations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act or the indisposition of local law enforcement authorities — this one is for you.
Turkish police have detained the country’s top customs official and dozens of others in a wide-ranging bribery and smuggling investigation, reported The Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review, an English-language daily.
Well, that's great, right? Who can argue with that?
Let me just point out one little thing. Look at the original article.
The manager of the Istanbul Customs House, who holds responsibility for all the country’s customs houses, has been detained in an investigation into allegations of bribery and other illegal activities.
The Istanbul Police Department first noticed evidence of smuggling in June ...
In June? You mean to tell me they didn't notice evidence of this before? That's a bit weird, seeing as everyone and his brother in Turkey has always known this. Goodness, maybe they should read, say, what I write:
“There’s a property deed office,” Altıparmak said, “Tapu Dairesi, in each district. Each one takes in about 50,000 lira a day in bribes. The bribe you have to pay just to get a legal transaction completed in a timely fashion is 100 lira. If you multiply that by 500, you get 50,000. If you don’t pay it, you’ll wait weeks to get the documents you need to buy a home. If you need something illegal done, the price rockets in proportion to the illegality and how much work it will take to make it look legal. There are 1,000 Tapu offices in Turkey. Multiply 50,000 lira times 1,000 times 300 work days per year…. That’s just Tapu. The customs officials skim off $2.2 billion per year. What Professor Altuğ says is all true. I’m 70 years old. I’ve been in business, I’ve been in politics, I’ve been in sports—it’s all true.”
So what's going on here? I don't know. But I think this part of the article just might be relevant:
In one incident of alleged smuggling, 36 truckloads of tea were allowed into the country via Istanbul’s Halkalı district, with official forms registering their cargo as carbonate. After the trucks loaded with tea entered the country, the customs entry was switched to say that the cargo was actually glassware. Ayhan Çarkın, convicted of involvement in a 1996 car crash scandal, is alleged to be the mastermind of this particular scheme and is further accused of involvement with the smuggling ring as part of the “deep state.”
My advice to the Wall Street Journal: Look up the name Ayhan Çarkın. Ask yourself if there might be more to this story. This is Turkey. Nothing here is ever what it seems.
But as a rule of thumb, assume that everyone is trying to play the Western media.
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Comments :
May '10
Re: You Mean They Take Bribes in Turkey?
Let me guess. Ayhan Çarkın paid a bribe to the wrong policeman after bribing the right customs officials. The right policeman caught wind of this and decided to show them who's boss in Halkalı.
Jul '10
Re: You Mean They Take Bribes in Turkey?
I'm with outstripp. Bribery is a time-honored institution outside of the West and this kind of hiccup can usually be traced to someone that didn't follow the rules or someone forcing a change in the rules.
I am sure they read your stuff, Claire, but they will only notice it when it serves the local logic. There is always the chance something you write will put them onto someone breaking their rules.
Edited on Jan 11, 2011 at 8:30amAug '10
Re: You Mean They Take Bribes in Turkey?
Turkey is also the home to some rather elaborate scams. Government complicity must be a given.
Our brandishment of the FCPA acts like more a euphemism generator than anything else.
I'm sure your daily transactions proceed with minimal problems, but believe me, at another level the doublespeak, the secondary and tertiary agendas are truly byzantine in their construction.
And that is the redundancy .
Oct '10
Re: You Mean They Take Bribes in Turkey?
Exactly, Sisyphus. I had a coworker who was once an accountant with Arthur Anderson. He had been assigned to do some audit work in Dubai and was amazed at all the grease needed for the gears.
Jun '10
Re: You Mean They Take Bribes in Turkey?
Exactly. Customs and many other part of the bureaucracy in these types of countries are full of competing clans. Take a look at Russia's corruption enforcement. One clan is simply getting the upper hand over another. There are many examples where they continually arrest each other until one wins enough to gain all the spoils. Remember, ill-gotten gains only go up, so it is incredibly difficult to root it out since so many high officials are simply at the top of the corruption pyramid. They never want to give that up and to dig deeper in any investigation just gets too close to the bosses. These cases are rarely criminal, just political.
Re: You Mean They Take Bribes in Turkey?
flownover: I'm sure your daily transactions proceed with minimal problems, but believe me, at another level the doublespeak, the secondary and tertiary agendas are truly byzantine in their construction.
And that is the redundancy . · Jan 11 at 6:56am
"Minimal problems?" Oh, I am doubled over.