Give me an example of a deal where a nation has been ripped off as bad as Romania was on the international market.
A rather bold one line unsupported statement, I suggest; how about a clue to the topic and a little evidence, a link?
Are you referring to the deal in 2003 where Romania purchased two ex-Royal Navy Type 22 Frigates; because there were a lot of wrinkles associated with that deal.
Firstly, after the work had commenced Romania were unable make the milestone payments and so the refurbishment/modification program had to be cut back to the minimum. I was a Program Manager on the “Red Team” that was called in to access the recovery plan proposed by the Project Management Team. The company had spent a lot of money doing preparatory planning work and stripping out old equipment, before it was discovered that Romania would be unable to pay. There were export guarantees in place for some aspects of the work, but the finances were a mess. The upshot was that the ships were put back together, “re-furbished” and made sea-worthy at a price the Romanian could afford. The project did not make the profit originally planned (even in percentage terms) and it made a very large hole in the books for the associated division.
With regards to dirty dealings, it was BAE Systems that alerted the FSO that they were not happy with want was going on in Romania. The price of the project was being inflated by “in-country agents” to increase their commission in brokering the deal.
The Romanian government, the UK government and BAE Systems were taken for a ride by the local “wide boys”, who were very well practiced in dirty dealing from the cold war days. A few heads rolled in BAES as a result. After the project had been completed as usual a team did a review before the project was closed off, I noticed an odd line item, where there was a purchase order for sports equipment (shorts, shirts and trainers) in kids sizes. There were notes and links to a cheque from the local BAES Charity organisation, they had raised funds by the workers in the shipyard and matched (and more) by BAES. A bit late in the day the Project Manager noticed that the original request had asked for footballs, posts & nets, and that VAT and transport had been excluded; we found that he made up the difference with a personal cheque.
Having long since retired he still organises trips fro the UK (Scotland) carrying needed equipment to Romania, particularly leading up to Christmas (I have driven a few trips myself). Each year, near Christmas container loads of shoebox gifts leave Scotland for Romania, originally aimed at orphans, children in care and generally the needy.
BAES offered to cover at least twice over and pick up the associated costs of efforts of such originated within BAES units. They have honoured such commitments where operational units have been transferred to other companies, even if the original commitment has been matched the new company.
If you want to discuss this subject or another to which you refer in your original statement fine, we can start another thread.
As an aside, before we were married my wife visited the country and I had an official assignment there also during the days of the cold war.
A few comments about then: -
The locals queued for everything as soon as it was rumoured to be in stock, when ever was on offer they bought it (even if they did not need it).
They eat what ever was in season; there were almost no imports.
There were two clothes shops for men “Adam” for Women “Eve”.
I remember they had a great sense of humour and carried the burden of the hardship well. There were a huge number of jokes about pigs; this was code for about “Russians”, most of them totally unrepeatable.
A few comments about now: -
We have been back a couple of times since the wall came down; they are doing OK, still poor proud and having fun.
The government is trying to establish itself and maintain order, but there is still a lot of organised (and some institutionalised) crime.
It is not at all about big bad international companies ripping off the locals; it is more about playing as fairly as you can and still making the deal. (BAE Systems has very strict rules to ensure that UK laws are not broken and if anyone is found to be outside company rules and policy then they are dealt with very severely).
@Big-E
If you are currently operational, as you appear to be, at your rank, you have to be young 35 years of age max, probably 27 +/- 2.
If you want to make four star don’t ****-**-** at this early stage in your career we have better hopes of you.
No one-liners. State your point, quote and give links where appropriate.
Sorry if I did not provide many links as you will understand not much of this stuff has been published. But I think a quick Google will show that is about how it happened.
Chris
