used to work in the architectural & engineering department of the RBC. We were usually the schmoos who went and met with the local BoEs to decide what kind of work would be done/how much.
that was by far some of the most corrupt outfits that I've ever worked with. And that's after years of working with "worldly" firms.
The whole RBC is essentially run by a bunch of nobody douchebags with Napoleon complexes who try to pass themselves off as actual engineers, architects, surveyors, contractors, etc. Most of these boobs couldn't fix a twig if it were bent, but are put in charge of HUGE amounts of money.
Also, in the A&E department, we had a new department overseer every friggin month, because each unqualified moron they put in charge turned out to be only be using it as something to put on their "WT resume" to get into CO school or whatever.
I saw a bunch of nonsense, but I will mention just two incidents.
1) Congregation A has a Kingdom Hall in a very undesirable part of town with NO parking. They save up an assload of money and try to acquire a nicer piece of property. RBC comes in and squashes it, talking about how they "went ahead of Jehovah's direction." Congregation A apologizes. It suggested that a nearby Congregation B has an aging Hall that needs repair and they are all alone. RBC tells Congregation A to sell their existing Hall which fetches them like $300,000. Add that to the $250,000 they had and they move in with Congregation B with RBC concepts to renovate Hall B to accomodate both congregations. Congregation B has saved like $50,000 or so. So now the congregations have $600,000-ish to build. All contractor work HAS to go through the RBC. the local branch sends a letter telling the congregations that they should give the $600,000 to the Society for "safe-keeping", which of course, being good Dubbies, they do. AFTER YEARS OF WAITING FOR RBC ACTION, they finally recieve a crappy hand drawn sketch on transparency paper of the concept to add a foyer and some new restrooms to Hall B. Another letter comes from the Branch, this time it tells the BoE that since there are brothers in Africa who have nothing, maybe they should just stick to some minor renovations.....
......and just like that $600,000 disappears into the Society's pockets and both congregations haven't seen a single brand new light bulb.
2) Congregation C needs major renovation for mold damage, complete gut-out of Hall. RBC committee orders the purchasing of brand new mobile command trailers complete with offices, HVAC, boardrooms, etc. Somewhere to the tune of $200,000 apiece. Here's the strange part: Hall C is in the middle of nowhere and 97% of the construction is being handled by local guys. The RBC committee bigshots are all from congregations WELL NORTH of the construction site and almost never show up. They just wanted to have fancy trailers paid with congregation money so they can have their bigshot meetings if by chance they decide to show up. Which they didn't. Congregation C flips the bill WITH ABSOLUTELY NO SAY.
the RBC was one of the craziest things I've ever been involved in. The above reference to Mafioso is 1,000,000% accurate.