READERS REPORT (31) LIVING IN THE LAND OF CORRUPTION

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READER REPORT: (31)

Living in the land of corruption

GERARD O'NEIL   21/06/2015

An investigation into a Brazilian car wash uncovered one of the biggest corruption and money laundering scandals in the country's history.

One of the things I needed to come to terms with when I moved to Brazil was the endemic corruption that penetrates every aspect of one's life here.

Brazil's current ranking on the Transparency International Country Corruption Perception Index (least to most corrupt) is 69, as opposed to New Zealand's number 2 ranking.

The first step in tackling the issue of corruption is establishing one's ethical threshhold. 

Like most Brazilian processes it seemed easier to pay corrupt officials to obtain the document required. I was very happy when after two years of refusing to "pay a little extra" I was finally awarded a permanent visa. A short time later an investigation into the immigration department saw hundreds of foreigners expelled from the country.

I then tried to have my university degree recognised. I had several job offers but without Brazilian certification I could do little. I soon discovered that it is almost impossible for foreigners to validate their degrees in Brazil.

One university had the perfect solution however - I would pay them as if I was repeating my university course, but did not need to attend classes. At the end of the programme I would be awarded a Brazilian degree. The other solution, and cheaper, was simply to buy a false degree on the black market. I did neither.

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I began teaching English to business executives. I learnt that the concept of a "level playing field" does not exist in Brazil as it is common for companies to pay bribes, rob clients, produce substandard products or provide poor quality services.

Even though Brazil has one of the highest tax rates in the world most of the money collected simply disappears into a corrupt void. Public servants earn much more than the average wage earner, are guaranteed jobs for life and responded to nobody. (Public service counters have signs which read, "If you argue with a public servant you can be jailed for challenging their authority".)

The justice system is so failed that processes often presubscribe before being judged, and if a judicial decision is made, it is often ignored. There is a saying here: "only the poor go to jail". An extensive "old boy's (family connections) network" is essential.

Despite the above scenario, I continue to live by my Kiwi standards.

CHANGING TIMES

Soon after I arrived a businessman gave me this incredible piece of advice. He told me: "Brazilian laws were written full of loopholes for corrupt operators. However, for the laws not to appear ridiculous, all contain doors allowing honest people to go through. If you can find the door you will be beholden to no-one!"

I spend a lot of time and effort looking for these doors but have always eventually found them.

All the corrupt operations and operators I have known over the years have two things in common. One, there is a sense of impunity and two, there is always a way to convert the ill-gotten gains into United States dollars or Euros. But all of a sudden things have changed.

Last year, a judge in Curitiba began to investigate a car wash (lava-jato) operation in a nearby city. To everyone's amazement it soon expanded into the biggest corruption and money-laundering scandal in the history of Brazil, involving tens of billions of US dollars and bringing one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, the pride of Brazil and the country's largest company, Petrobras to its knees.

Many of the country's top business executives are currently in jail and the scandal just keeps growing. It now involves a number of the world's biggest multinationals. The scandal has thrown tens of thousands of ordinary Brazilian workers out of a job and has set off a serious financial crisis in the country.

The question now is if the President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff participated in the scandal. The United States and the rest of the NSA spy partners know, as Edward Snowden revealed they were listening to her telephone conversations.

If knowledge is power, then New Zealand's involvement with the NSA makes New Zealand one of the most powerful countries in the world.

If the NSA partners know of situations which violate the rights of millions of ordinary people, then don't they have a moral obligation to expose those involved? If they don't, doesn't that make them accessories to crimes?

Is New Zealand really one of the least corrupt countries in the world, or is it in reality one of the most corrupt?

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