It happens in the private sector too. I was involved in procurement at a megacorp for several years.
At one point one of my colleagues asked for assistance in getting an order of 500 iphones approved. As "spares".
Fortunately the corp had a policy that phone purchases needed to have a named individual declared.
I declined politely to assist.
It was common to see certain mid level execs churning through 2x - 5x the equipment of IC's (who would never get out-of-lifecycle approvals anyeay) and some quid pro quo stuff. As a fraction of their total comp it was modest ultimately, and for this reason my boss advised me to keep my mouth shut.
At one point one of my colleagues asked for assistance in getting an order of 500 iphones approved. As "spares".
Fortunately the corp had a policy that phone purchases needed to have a named individual declared.
I declined politely to assist.
It was common to see certain mid level execs churning through 2x - 5x the equipment of IC's (who would never get out-of-lifecycle approvals anyeay) and some quid pro quo stuff. As a fraction of their total comp it was modest ultimately, and for this reason my boss advised me to keep my mouth shut.