September 18; Honesty Is The Best Policy
MANAGEMENT BY THE BOOK:
365 Daily Bible Verse &
One-Minute Management Lessons For The Busy Faithful

Chapter Nine: Finance; September 18

Now let the fear of the LORD be on you.

Judge carefully,

for with the LORD our God

there is no injustice or partiality or bribery.

2 Chronicles 19:7

Bribe

My client slipped a $20 bill into his Belgian passport and gave it to the official.

I followed behind him sans cash. The bureaucrat looked at my USA passport and invited me to have a seat while it was “processed.”

After some time in the penalty box I was released and allowed to join my impatient CEO. “What did you do?” he asked, “You didn’t try to speak French to him, I hope.”

“No—English, like the rest of civilization,” I said.

“Could have been worse,” said my Euro-Traveler. “You could have spoken Flemish—that would have been quite expensive to get you out of that…”

“What?” I didn’t know languages had a price.

“You needed to offer some ‘encouragement’ to our friends.”

“I can’t do that,” I said in self-righteousness. “I’m an American!” (Actually, I didn’t know the limits of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act forbidding international gratuities.)

In India it’s called “Speed Money.” In Mexico it’s call “Facilitation.” In China it’s called a “Relationship.”

In the US of A, it’s called a “Bribe.”

Except in Washington, DC, the Nation’s Capital where it’s called “Love.”

***

Frank Robinson, an Inspector for the Washington, DC Department of Transportation was caught on tape asking for love; asking for a bribe. According to The Washington Times, May 25, 2006:

Mr. Robinson: You want your permit right away, right?

Contractor: [Darn] right I want my permit.

Mr. Robinson: You need to love me, baby, you need to love me. I did my part; you didn’t get no fines or anything.

Contractor: Give me a price. I got to talk to my people about money. Tell me how much.

Mr. Robinson: What you think man? If you had somebody …watch something so you didn’t get a $2,500 ticket?

Contractor: Frank, I need a price.

Mr. Robinson: Give me $500.

Sounds much like doing business in a Third World Nation. Or maybe it is. As Washington, DC has often been compared.

***

Andrew Abela, Provost of The Catholic University of America, writes, “The following [is] also morally illicit …corruption in which one influences the judgment of those who must make decisions according to law.”

A bribe distorts commerce and the public good and the human heart. A clean transaction is the best policy in doing any business.

Even if no one else in the world does.

Now let the fear of the LORD be on you. Judge carefully, for with the LORD our God there is no injustice or partiality or bribery. 2 Chronicles 19:7

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