Institutionalized.

Procurement corruption in government takes various guises.

In Russia, it’s dead simple. You either buy the new paving materials from my brother or I put a bullet in your head.

In India, I slip you a few rupees and you buy from my brother.

But in the SF Bay peninsula it’s both institutionalized and sophisticated. I get on the city council, I pack it with cronies and we approve a $16 million repaving project for three blocks of Burlingame Avenue without putting the thing to a vote. And my brother still gets the contract. All the street improvement projects in my town are awarded to but one lead general contractor, which is hardly surprising.

Further, the paving contract, in all its magnificent corruption, halves the number of parking places in the city’s richest shopping area by changing from diagonal to parallel parking and even the parking spaces are covered with six inches of the finest marble. We are told on the many placards surrounding this abomination, which has snarled traffic for over a year now and will continue to do so for one more year, that this is all to “improve the shopping experience”. Meanwhile, the money spent could have provided two MacBooks and three iPads to every single student in the city’s public schools – K through 5, Intermediate and High schools.

Looks darned nice though, doesn’t it?

How to slip your brother $16mm.

iPhone5 snap.