Wow, there is some really funny shit going on in your head behind that pink goggles of yours? We are trying to deal with that for several years now, still a lot of work to be done. And no - that's not just thinking. Some of those government guys became so insolent that their shady schemes are basically open to public.

Hanlon's Razor - Don't attribute malice to what could just as easily be explained by incompetence.

Turns out there are just a lot of incompetent people.

Depends on the country, I guess. Come visit Ukraine - there is almost nothing hidden regarding those agendas here. One question, tho - if they are so incompetent and mismanaged, how come they're your government?

To take EU funding, obviously :)

That pretty easy. Let's say you're a government official who's in charge of a local subway. One of the stations is in need of renovation. You're opening a tender for that and got 3 participants - 2 of them are some independent companies with bids around market price of the work required. Lets say 105 and 107 thousands euro. And the third company belongs to your brother in law and he wants 500 thousand euros for his services. In perfect world such bid won't stand a chance. But, since you're the one responsible for the tender, you can change requirements for the set of documents required for participation like one day before start, making it impossible for other participants to provide documents in time and thus making them unable to participate. So your brother in law wins the tender, sub-contract work to some third party for the market price and you split the rest of the money. And even if you're will be charged with "improper use of municipal funds" you'll be fined with something around 500 euro and will keep your job.

That is what I've meant by saying "basically own" - you can do whatever you want with company and you can't be held responsible for any of your actions.

And that's not just some imaginary scheme - that shit happens on daily basis in most of Eastern Europe countries. I'm from Ukraine and we're trying to fight that shit for several years now.

Why do criminals need to be re-elected at election time ?

Hm.. money laundering?

Oh, you seem to be using the code words of state-sponsored media pretty well. Demagogue and populism in the same sentence, nice! : )

Lets not pretend that the tenders made by the BKK is any more lawful or fair than the rest of the tenders that dominate the market around here.

Actually that is a critique of a problem. Because one of the biggest problem of Eastern Europe is corruption which leads to many different problems, that eventually result in such stories.