OK so this is 20/20 hind sight, but I should not have come forward. I should have taken the money from Dell, the boat from Compaq, the job from IBM.
I got a glimpse of the inside circle. Just a glimpse, not long enough to know all things, but enough to have seen just how corrupt our government, and the fortune 500 really are.
But I should have taken the money, instead of telling the truth......
I found the "Cream of the Crop" in Government and corporate America, distasteful, to say the least.
Men (mostly) consumed by greed and their own internal competitive natures.
Decisions were made with complete disregard for the impact they might have on society as a whole. And instead were focused on profit and loss sheets, percentages and bonuses. Gifts and graft, and at times outright criminal behavior, all the norm.
but I, the little Catholic School Girl that I am, wanted to tell the truth. Wanted to let someone know that they were just hungerily grabbing at every bit of profit they could. And justifying it to each other as a deerved payday!
As they stashed the cash off shore, invested in other markets, inflating them unnecessarily. I watched in amazement, was this legal? We were over charging the Government intentionally. We Over charged each other, as a matter of contract, passing on these incentive payments, rebates etc, on in the now inflated prices to the government. (Defense contractor Prime and Sub agreements)
How about that Procurement officer who got the $100,000.00 Back yard makeover? Is that legal? How about when I scheduled the Field tech into the Department Secretary's home to set up a new network, wire the house, and supplied all of the equipment? Of course we won both of those contracts. Why did they have someone in Senior management schedule these people? Dun know, did as I was told.
When we started demanding bribes to become a prime vendor, I began to investigate these practices.
As i looked harder and harder into it, I found the poison vein of greed ran through both political parties, down the ladder of corporate America, and through the veins of the most powerful families in our country, and in the families abroad.
There were very few of us who could even stand tall through the first bribery offers, let alone through many rounds and not cave in. Not lower our standards and succumb to the, powerful, lusty, seductive lifestyle offered with the dirty money.
So I stood up, I said out loud, this is wrong. know where it got me? Laid off, yuppers. With a reputation, so that NO other Fortune 500 will hire me. All the good things I did in my career, POOF, gone. Of course there are promises of restitution, promises of QuiTam's etc etc.
But in the six years this has been going on, since I stood up and was honest. Nothing but heartache has visited my family. If we have to get involved at all with a Government Agency, we are harmed. Taxes suddenly double, bills paid on time, registered late. Strange really old bills on my credit report. They were a mistake, but by then every bank in my path raised my adjustable rates to the max.
And now, the time has come, for me to take the final journey. Know that song? It is how I feel these days. My need to be honest, has taken my[ family right on the edge, looking into the abyss. Losing the house it took 3 years to build, losing the business, that was to sustain us through the Fortune 500 storm. Had I known that instead of following through on the allegations, the LA DOJ would simply throw the Attorney's away like that? who know.
Who knew we would fall so far back in the Queue, after that little hiring/firing incident? Perhaps they knew,
Most of you will not read this, I am not a front pager, so my private hell will remain mostly private. One or more of you will criticize me, or find fault with past posts and chance most readers away.
but mostly, I just wish honesty could be instilled in our senate and house, and all American Citizens to be held accountable for damage done.