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Corruption Bombardier & Azerbijan

What a shock!

Now I don't know the particulars of all that transpires about the case being discussed in the Canadian press, that has apparently been percolating for nearly three years now, but I got to say that when I saw that Azerbaijan was involved... let's just say that I was not entirely surprised.

More than 20 years ago I was the "financing representative" of Bombardier in a team that was sent to finalize negotiations for the purchase of a number of regional aircraft.  To give the reader a sense of how these things normally work, there are about 10 Bombardier representatives (contract, maintenance, operations etc) there to finalize the purchase agreement.  Normally, this process takes 4/5 days.  We all arrived on a Sunday night and Monday morning we had our first meeting (with the draft purchase contract).  By 10:30 am the contract was signed -- for the full retail price for the aircraft!

Needless to say that the contract guys were surprised (me too -- ah the innocence of youth!).  Anyway, we go for a "celebratory" dinner (usual stuff) with lots of vodka (standard).  Then the CFO takes me aside and says he would like to meet me in the morning.

I will not go into details but the bottom line is that "a deal had to be reached between Bombardier and the airline" for "compensation... Bombardier was a strange operation then, a few years ago, DeHavilland had been purchased by Bombardier and there had been some serious problems with aircraft sold in (I seem to remember) Jamaica.  Let's just say that everyone was well aware of the risks associated with "illegal payments"

I did my job, figured out who wanted what and how much.  I also discovered that the then CEO had to pay the country's president to keep his job -- 20 years ago and that was rumored (but widely accepted).

First thing I did on my return to head office is to arrange a meeting with the head of the commercial aircraft division, where I gave him the "lay of the land" to understand what I had found out and what they wanted (they were very clear).  He was no idiot, in fact, he's still a really really smart cookie (he too left Bombardier years ago).  There was no doubt in either of our minds that if you wanted to do any deal in that country "payments had to be made".  He was a little pissed off with the salesman involved -- but then he remembered that "He's the one who gives sales target to the sales team".  In other words, it's very easy to be exposed to such demands -- and until you know, you don't know (this was also "pre-internet days" so the information was harder to obtain).

We did what needed to be done and waited for the contract to die!  There was nothing else to do, we signed a piece of paper for the sale of a number of aircraft -- they never made the deposit payment and the purchase contract lapsed...

I believed that it was the last ever contract with that country during my time at Bombardier (decades ago), it brings back to mind the concept of institutional memory.  These are the things you know, because you know.  Granted twenty years and very different geographical locations and divisons (aerospace Vs. mass transit).

At the end of the day, it is senior management's job to ask the hard questions, the sales team are sent into the field and are given objectives.  It is senior management's job to know when the acceptable parameters are met (or not).  The other issue, of course, is that this is all BS and that nothing untoward happened.  The most amazing thing here is that the only guy "in trouble" is the sales guy...and that's pure bullshit!

P.S.  Nothing illegal was done by anyone here.  The decision was easily made (less than 10 seconds) and there were no doubt in anyones mind that this was the right thing to do. 




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