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This reminds me of Roman times, when generals would inflate the number of soldiers under them, get paid then pocket the difference. Or a more recent example,

This reminds me of Roman times, when generals would inflate the number of soldiers under them, get paid then pocket the difference. Or a more recent example, Afghanistan: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-59230564 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-59230564

mistrial9 4y ago
notice that Biometric Identification company posting the very first comment in that article comment section. While other YNews readers casually promote constant surveillance, I for one, am steadfastly, actively against biometric tagging for benefits, constant and automated surveillance against the powerless for violations, and no-recourse bureaucracies with guranteed revenue.
Mountain_Skies 4y ago
Happens all over the place. In developing countries, work as a porter can be lucrative, especially because of the tips travelers give at the end. It's common for the number of porters at the tipping gathering to exceed the number of porters who actually worked the trip. The travelers usually don't have time or focus for learning to identify all of the porters so it's easy to get away with. Those who only show up at the end for a tip are expected to share part of the tip with the porters who kept silent about this.
zw123456 4y ago
That reminds me of this scam that this director at a BIG company I used to work at did. He got SSN's of dead people and made fake resume's and interviewed himself and hired them. Then collected their paychecks. Eventually he got caught of course, but big companies are funny how they don't like things like that getting out because it makes them look back and would shake investor confidence etc. So they just let him go, didn't prosecute or even try to get the money back, just swept it under the rug. I heard a year or so later he was at another big company with the same title and job. No idea if he was still doing that but would not surprise me if he continued doing unscrupulous things. Unfortunately, that type of thing seems to happen a lot in large bureaucracies for those same types of reasons, whether governments, big business or whatever, they want to sweep mistakes like that under the rug. Hopefully they plug the hole before doing that. One can hope.
- gamblor956 4y ago
  Going to call BS on that one. Employers have been required to physically verify employment authorization documents (i.e., SSN or passport) since 1986. (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-resources/handbook-for-employers-m-274/10-why-employers-must-verify-employment-authorization-and-identity-of-new-employees https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-resources/handboo...) Work authorization status also affects a number of things related to payroll. So it's not a trivial issue for one person, acting alone, to make up a bunch of fake employees. In order to get away with something like this in real life, there would have to have been someone else at the company in on the fraud (since, as you claim, it's a "BIG" company). And since payroll is involved, you are looking at several federal and state felonies, which means its not the company's choice to file charges or not. Multiple state and federal agencies would pursue this even if the company did not. This story would have been believable if you had said it was at a small startup without an HR department.
  - zw123456 4y ago
    it was in 1984 and it was a telco. and there have been other examples of the main point I was making which is that wrong doing gets swept under the rug by bureaucracies to avoid embarrassment. Just a few years ago a department head was putting through PO's for expensive equipment and approving it himself and then selling it on ebay. He got caught, they fired him but did not press charges. Me moved to another company and as I have seen many times, same title. I have seen numerous examples of this over the years in both big companies and start ups. it happens.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
andai 4y ago
>The former minister said the numbers may have been inflated by more than six times, and included "desertions [and] martyrs who were never accounted for because some of the commanders would keep their bank cards" and withdraw their salaries, he alleged. wtf

mistrial9 4y ago

notice that Biometric Identification company posting the very first comment in that article comment section. While other YNews readers casually promote constant surveillance, I for one, am steadfastly, actively against biometric tagging for benefits, constant and automated surveillance against the powerless for violations, and no-recourse bureaucracies with guranteed revenue.

Mountain_Skies 4y ago

Happens all over the place. In developing countries, work as a porter can be lucrative, especially because of the tips travelers give at the end. It's common for the number of porters at the tipping gathering to exceed the number of porters who actually worked the trip. The travelers usually don't have time or focus for learning to identify all of the porters so it's easy to get away with. Those who only show up at the end for a tip are expected to share part of the tip with the porters who kept silent about this.

zw123456 4y ago

That reminds me of this scam that this director at a BIG company I used to work at did. He got SSN's of dead people and made fake resume's and interviewed himself and hired them. Then collected their paychecks. Eventually he got caught of course, but big companies are funny how they don't like things like that getting out because it makes them look back and would shake investor confidence etc. So they just let him go, didn't prosecute or even try to get the money back, just swept it under the rug. I heard a year or so later he was at another big company with the same title and job. No idea if he was still doing that but would not surprise me if he continued doing unscrupulous things. Unfortunately, that type of thing seems to happen a lot in large bureaucracies for those same types of reasons, whether governments, big business or whatever, they want to sweep mistakes like that under the rug. Hopefully they plug the hole before doing that. One can hope.

gamblor956 4y ago
Going to call BS on that one. Employers have been required to physically verify employment authorization documents (i.e., SSN or passport) since 1986. (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-resources/handbook-for-employers-m-274/10-why-employers-must-verify-employment-authorization-and-identity-of-new-employees https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-resources/handboo...) Work authorization status also affects a number of things related to payroll. So it's not a trivial issue for one person, acting alone, to make up a bunch of fake employees. In order to get away with something like this in real life, there would have to have been someone else at the company in on the fraud (since, as you claim, it's a "BIG" company). And since payroll is involved, you are looking at several federal and state felonies, which means its not the company's choice to file charges or not. Multiple state and federal agencies would pursue this even if the company did not. This story would have been believable if you had said it was at a small startup without an HR department.
- zw123456 4y ago
  it was in 1984 and it was a telco. and there have been other examples of the main point I was making which is that wrong doing gets swept under the rug by bureaucracies to avoid embarrassment. Just a few years ago a department head was putting through PO's for expensive equipment and approving it himself and then selling it on ebay. He got caught, they fired him but did not press charges. Me moved to another company and as I have seen many times, same title. I have seen numerous examples of this over the years in both big companies and start ups. it happens.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]

andai 4y ago

>The former minister said the numbers may have been inflated by more than six times, and included "desertions [and] martyrs who were never accounted for because some of the commanders would keep their bank cards" and withdraw their salaries, he alleged. wtf