> It turned out that various contracted companies had corruptly put the software licenses they bought for the government into their own names, leading to a lock-in for their services.
This is a dirty trick I ran into in [US] state procurement, in a state known for widespread corruption. It's basically a no-show job where you just hold a bunch of long-term contracts for the state, and claim a monthly "support" fee for doing it. Even worse, you got to negotiate those contracts (and set up your kickbacks or self-dealing.) Bonus points for needing to call the contractor in order to have the contractor call support, and the contractor taking a fee for doing it.
Endless avenues for corruption with a setup like this.
This is a dirty trick I ran into in [US] state procurement, in a state known for widespread corruption. It's basically a no-show job where you just hold a bunch of long-term contracts for the state, and claim a monthly "support" fee for doing it. Even worse, you got to negotiate those contracts (and set up your kickbacks or self-dealing.) Bonus points for needing to call the contractor in order to have the contractor call support, and the contractor taking a fee for doing it.
Endless avenues for corruption with a setup like this.