Word: fraud
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Corruption and fraud in the construction industry have plagued New York City for decades. Public projects, especially the $4.3 billion building program for schools, have been marred by crumbling plaster and leaky roofs -- often the work of firms tied to organized crime. Now a state agency seeks to disqualify unscrupulous contractors before they can even bid on city projects. The School Construction Authority, created in 1989, has identified 52 contracting firms linked to crime or shaky financing. "Some agencies review companies with suspicious records, but we demand disclosure of potential bidders," says Thomas D. Thacher, the SCA's inspector general...
European and, to a lesser extent, Japanese scientists have begun to surpass their American counterparts. In the U.S. the scientific community is beset by a budget squeeze and bureaucratic demands, internal squabbling, harassment by activists, embarrassing cases of fraud and failure, and the growing alienation of Congress and the public. In the last decade of the 20th century, U.S. science, once unassailable, finds itself in a virtual state of siege...
...Nobel laureate David Baltimore's stubborn refusal to concede that data reported by a former M.I.T. colleague in an immunology paper Baltimore had co- signed was fraudulent, and the shoddy treatment of the whistle blower who spotted the fraud aroused public suspicion about scientific integrity. Worse, from the viewpoint of scientists, it brought about an investigation by Michigan Democrat John Dingell's House subcommittee and fears of more federal supervision of science. By the time Baltimore finally apologized for his role in the affair, the damage to science's image had been done...
...scientists too must shoulder their share of the blame. Cases of outright fraud and waste, sloppy research, dubious claims and public bickering have made science an easy target for its critics. Says Marcel LaFollette, a professor of international science policy at George Washington University: "One of the threads that run through all this is a refusal by the science community to acknowledge that there is a problem. They continue with the attitude that scientists are part of the elite and they deserve special political treatment and handling...
Even cases of apparent fraud can fall into a gray area. Among the most serious charges Western countries have leveled at B.C.C.I. are accusations that it fraudulently concealed huge off-the-books loans to wealthy Middle East investors. But sources in the Persian Gulf note that Arab bankers have traditionally made large loans to the region's royal families and wealthy merchants without demanding the documentation Westerners would require...