Replies

Years ago, I worked for a big name company in Japan which was charged with building and commissioning a power plant in Indonesia. I will not go into specifics, but there was a certain pump critical to the operation which required a certain grade of oil refined only at a single specialty refinery in the United States.

Now Indonesia has this law which prohibits the import of any fuel or lubricating materials made from oil since they are an oil producing and refining company. We had to get this oil into the country because the pump was our portion of the contract and we needed this particular oil to run the pump.

It seemed like the only way around the dilemma was to pay a bribe which was prohibited. Such bribes are generally described as a consultancy fee which is paid by some arranger. Guess where said "arrangers" are connected.

However, I suggested another solution which was eventually accepted. Namely, pour the oil into an inexpensive piece of machinery which could be imported and then drained by our people at the construction site to supply the critical pump and keep the commissioning on schedule.