Shell Oil Manager on gifts (bribes) given to Shell employees by vendors:
“And yes John, there are acceptable levels of gifts, and if you do not think there are then you are living in la la land.”
FURTHER COMMENT BY A FORMER EMPLOYEE OF SHELL OIL USA
When I was at Shell Research many years ago I was in a position of evaluating vendor services and making recommendations about those services to the rest of the company.
The two biggest companies I dealt with were, of course, Schlumberger and Halliburton. My work required access to proprietary material from both companies so it was absolutely imperative that the relationships were kept completely professional.
As such, I would not allow these guys to buy me so much as a bottle of Coke. Nor would I buy their people so much as a Coke. When you are in such a position you can not play favorites and you cannot get ‘cozy’ with any particular vendor or with any of their people. It is inevitable that you do develop ‘professional’ relationships with your contacts in these companies, but they must be kept ‘professional’. I essentially followed the ethical standards of conduct of the US Navy’s Naval Reactor Program Office in my dealings with the vendors, which I was familiar with.