Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Cracking down on a common business practice

From Urbanite:

Beginning this year, and in light of recent arrests of restaurant employees on attempted bribery charges, the city’s Department of Investigations told amNewYork it has stepped up its corruption prevention lectures to health inspectors.

While the city didn’t arrest any restaurant employees for health inspector bribes in 2009, it busted four people in 2010 and one so far in 2011.

Three of the four in 2010 came after the city implemented its new sanitary grading system in July. According to the DOI, a restaurant owner was busted in November for blatantly trying to “buy” an “A” grade.

City employees are required by mayoral executive order to report any kickback offers.

The DOI declined to say how many bribery cases it handles each year and the number of sting operations it conducts, citing confidentiality reasons.

In the November arrest, the manager of the East Manor Buffet in Elmhurst allegedly tried to give an undercover investigator posing as an inspector a $500 “gift.” This was after the restaurant was found to have insects crawling in the bakery section.

Another manager who answered the phone last week said the previous manager no longer works there.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is this before or after the "new" management?

Anonymous said...

Silly hardworking taxpayers. You don't give money to the inspectors. You give it to the bosses, ie. councilmen, state senators, asemblymen, congressman, borough presidents, then it's not a bribe it's a donation.

Anonymous said...

How many bribes are offered health inspectors in Floo-shing's Chinese restaurants...
offering anything from mystery meat to wild catch sea food...from the area's various polluted bodies of water?

Live Octopus said...

How many bribes are offered health inspectors in Floo-shing's Chinese restaurants...
offering anything from mystery meat to wild catch sea food...from the area's various polluted bodies of water?
------------------------------------------------------------
I resemble those remarks!

Anonymous said...

timmy did this

georgetheatheist said...

I ate at East Manor 3 months ago. No heat on that cold day. They herded all customers over to the kitchen where it was supposed to be warmer and more comfortable. I instead, wanted the view by the window, wore my coat while eating and breathed in the wonderful musty aroma of mold.

What a shithouse.

Anonymous said...

This is inevitable. There is a biannual harvest of DOB "inspectors" -nothing ever changes.

Once restaurants were required to display a large letter grade in their window the stakes were raised yet again. A further incentive for human greed.

There is no real fix for this situation -you can't trust businesses to abide by an honor system, and we won't pay these civil servants enough to keep them from temptation.

Next scandal, please.

Anonymous said...

No tax?
No problem!