Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Vincent E. Green has been a part of worldwide efforts to combat corruption for more than 40 years. During his career with the New York City Department of Investigation (DOI), Green progressed to the position of Deputy Commissioner. Green's accomplishments include leading an investigation uncovering the largest tax fraud scheme in New York City history, leading to the recovery of 20 million dollars. Green also, managed a joint investigation with the FBI and the United States Attorney's Office uncovering a mulita-million dollar tax fraud scheme in play for thirty-five years. Green was one of the founders of the DOI Peace Officer Academy. He is a Firearms Instructor, as well as, an instructor in the use of tactical batons and aerosol repellants. After a successful thirty-year career at DOI, Green successfully took on the challenge of forming a department at the City University of New York with a mission of ensuring the integrity and a corruption-free environment amongst contractors being used in the University's construction program. Green holds a Bachelor of Science and Master's degree. He has lectured to United Nations Ambassadors, dignitaries and representatives from more than 75 countries on the topic of anti-corruption. Green has been the recipient of awards for promoting integrity in government and recognition from four Mayors of the City of New York. Upon his retirement, the Commissioner of DOI established the "Vincent Green Award for Outstanding Strategic Initiatives" to be given out each year to a deserving investigator. Green is the author of Corruption in the Twenty-First Century; a memoir entitled, A View from My Bay, a poetic work, entitled, "Untrammeled Love," a Children's book entitled, "I Saw a Mouse Today.", and his most recent release entitled; Memories of Ground Zero. He is CEO of G-Square Consulting LLC, providing corruption awareness training to organizations. He takes the unwavering position that he will go anywhere in the world to speak against corruption. Deputy Commissioner Green can be reached at GSCTraining@ optimum.net or 917-681-2810.

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Corruption in the Twenty-First Century

iUniverse, Inc.

Contents

Foreword...............................................................................................xiPreface................................................................................................xiiiAcknowledgments........................................................................................xviiEditorial Thanks.......................................................................................xxiIntroduction...........................................................................................xxiiiChapter 1: Standing in the Gap.........................................................................3Chapter 2: DOI and I...................................................................................11Chapter 3: Nothing Happens in a Vacuum.................................................................21Chapter 4: The Ground-Zero Experience..................................................................29Chapter 5: The Logical Path............................................................................35Chapter 6: One Man Can Make a Difference...............................................................53Chapter 7: One Size Does Not Fit All...................................................................65Chapter 8: Our World, and Welcome to It................................................................79Chapter 9: A Well-Regulated Corruption-Fighting Agency Shall Not Be Infringed Upon.....................97Chapter 10: Scurvy Elephants...........................................................................115Chapter 11: If You Build It, They Will Come............................................................149Chapter 12: Procurement 101............................................................................159Chapter 13: Pirates Need Not Apply.....................................................................175Chapter 14: Who Rigged the Bids?.......................................................................189Chapter 15: Shooting from the Lip......................................................................199Chapter 16: Someone to Watch Over......................................................................217Chapter 17: Best-Laid Plans of Mice and Men............................................................239Chapter 18: Strength Is Power; Wisdom Is Control.......................................................251Chapter 19: Carpe Diem!................................................................................271Index..................................................................................................275Bibliography...........................................................................................279

Chapter One

When a person voluntarily accepts a position of public trust, he takes on new obligations. If he does not want to live up to them, he is free to decline the job. Not only is this a fair demand, but granting authority without expecting public servants to live up to it would be unfair to everyone they are expected to serve. Raise the salaries if jobs merit higher pay, but not in expectation of buying integrity. Nobody sells that. People who have it give it for free. Edwin J. Delattre

In 1626, Peter Minuit, the director-general of the Dutch West India Company, purchased property from the Canarsee Indians for $2,400 worth of metal kettles, knives, axes, guns, and blankets. The town of Nieuw Amsterdam, later to be renamed the borough of Manhattan in New York City (NYC), was established on this property. In 1653, the governmental structure in place in Nieuw Amsterdam hired a man named Tomas Bacxter (Bacxter), identified as a "retired pirate," to build a wall at the northern end of the settlement. They paid Bacxter the equivalent of $1,300 in US currency today.

Within two years, the wall crumbled. It seems that Bacxter used inferior lumber in constructing the wall. In so doing, he misappropriated half of the funds allocated to purchase the material from suppliers. Subsequently, the good citizens of Nieuw Amsterdam seized on the opportunity created by the crumbling wall and took pieces of the wall to save on incurring the cost of purchasing or laboring on their own to obtain firewood to keep their homes and businesses warm. The site where the wall was built is perhaps the world's most well-known and prominent financial center: Wall Street.

As I am editing this chapter, the Occupy Wall Street protests are taking place not far from the location where Bacxter built the wall. The organizers of these protests have joined in the belief that corruption is alive and well in the form of the movers and shakers on Wall Street and that it needs to come to an end. If the belief of the protesters is true, the dread pirate Bacxter must be proudly smiling in his grave.

The commissioning of Bacxter to construct the wall is among the first recorded stories of public corruption involving procurement fraud in the place where I have spent my career fighting corruption, New York City. It is possible that Bacxter was the first contractor to defraud the citizens of New York City. Regrettably, he was by no means the last.

It is unfortunate, but the weaknesses in the procurement process that opened the door for Bacxter's fraud are alive and well in the twenty-first century. I do not know the members of the selection committee, if such a committee existed, or the mind-set that was in place in 1653 that advocated it was a stroke of wisdom to hire a retired pirate to perform governmental work. The term "retired" does not translate into reformed or rehabilitated. In fact, if Bacxter were able to retire from being a pirate, it implies that he was successful at his chosen criminal career.

There is no reason to believe that Bacxter's retirement blessed him with a newfound desire for honesty and integrity. Nor is it likely that his success as a pirate would have appeared on his resume during the due diligence process when proposing that he possessed the skills to construct walls and, therefore, was qualified to be awarded the construction contract.

I make these points only because what appears to have been the likely selection process in this procurement is not new to me. This was a clear example of the actions of short-term thinkers in a long-term world. More than three centuries have passed, and the type of dangerous thinking that existed then still exists today. I see the hiring of modern-day pirates, with no intention of retiring, taking place today in the procurement process of many governments and organizations. Their existence continues to have far-reaching negative impacts on societies worldwide.

The spirit of Tomas Bacxter has produced a bumper crop of corrupt offspring. These spawns have taken up their father's cause and continue to devour and devalue nations through their corrupt actions. Governments continue to engage modern-day pirates, only today, these pirates are smart enough—or their lawyers are—to exploit all deficiencies and weaknesses of the system and all the loopholes in the laws and language.

This is a much more daunting scenario for corruption fighters to combat than just outright stealing; by trying to correct the deficiencies and fill in the loopholes, we often inadvertently create new ones. I have learned to take nothing...