BINGO!
Back in the 1980's, the EU & Great Britain (IIRC) were providing funding for a Yugoslav company to rebuild. Kenya's major (only) highway from Nairobi to Uganda. When I stopped by to take a look (back in the late 1960's I inspected road construction and was now curious), they were beginning to pave using 1.5" asphalt over a compacted earth base. NO gravel and NO soil cement!
When I asked the Yugoslav construction superintendent about it, his reply was "Go away, don't bother me."
A year later, that section had a detour due to the pavement breaking up.
Of the total "cost" to build the road, probably half went into materials, equipment, overhead and labor. 10% for legitimate profit. The rest went as graft, both to government officials and to the contractor
“Africa wins again.”
Turd world construction. A friend of mine was the project engineer on a rail project in Brazil. The short cuts the locals wanted to take were sobering. He stuck to his guns and got it done right.
Good old American “developers” built plenty of “streets” in their new subdivisions just that way. I personally saw trucks delivering construction material for the new high=dollar homes break through the asphalt into the dirt/mud ! The developers turn the roads over to the local city/county who get stuck with paying for a complete rebuild. At least in my locality the developers NOW must build streets to state standards.
There’s an old joke from South America back in the 70s/80s dictator days about the new Paraguayan finance minister who went to Chile to meet his counterpart there. He was amazed by the Chilean minister’s beautiful home, Mercedes-Benz and so on.
“How’d you get so rich?” asked the Paraguayan minister.
“You see that bridge over there?” replied the Chilean minister. “It cost $10 million. Five million for the bridge,” he went on, now tapping his pocket, “Five million for me.”
“Oh, I see,” nodded the Paraguayan.
A few years later they met again, this time in Paraguay. Now the Paraguayan minister had a big home, Mercedes, and so on. “Wow,” said the Chilean minister, “How’d you get so rich?”
“Easy,” replied the Paraguayan minister. “You see that bridge over there, it cost 10 million.”
“... I don’t see any bridge,” replied the Chilean.
Smiling, the Paraguayan finance minister tapped his pocket, “Yes, zero for the bridge, ten million for me!”