Friends who don’t make a meal of regulations on corporate largesse are class acts

Frank Kane dicusses the distinction between a high-level government employee and an old hack keeping readers informed and educated.

One of the great delights of the festive season in Dubai is that work goes on at a much more relaxed pace. You can do things in cosier environs than the usual business meeting around an office desk.

So it was a pleasure to accept an invitation last week from a long-standing contact to catch up on the year gone, and look ahead to 2015, in the amiable ambience of the cigar bar at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in DIFC.

My contact works for a big foreign investment institution, and has been a great source of insight over the years. Our relationship is as much friendly as professional, which is often the best way.

So we sat back in leather arm chairs and puffed a couple of Cubans while leisurely discussing the oil price, debt issues and a stack of other things. As usual, I got most of the benefit out of it – all grist for the weekly column.

After well over an hour we both had to head off, and ordered the bill.

“Now Frank, I have to confess something. I was going to treat you to the cigars, but I looked up the rules and I find that I am bound by the US Foreign and Corrupt Practices Act and the British Bribery Act. You are officially a government employee, so I cannot pay for your cigar.”

Well, I was a bit surprised, because the matter had never entered my head. It's true, of course, that The National is owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, which makes me formally a government employee, but I've never real seen myself a civil servant, always a journalist.

I wasn’t put out at all. The rules are the rules and he felt the need to abide by them, so I coughed up the Dh80 for my Cohiba, which was worth every fils.

But that was the second such occasion in the past couple of months. A while ago, a big global financial institution invited me to accompany some UAE financial executives on a trip they were organising to New York.

It would have been a fascinating insight into how Emirati business people perceived the biggest capital market in the world, and how they were perceived there.

A few days before scheduled departure, I got a call. “Frank, we’ve had to run this past compliance in London and New York, and because you’re a government employee” etc etc. In short, the trip was off. No, don’t get me wrong. I have absolutely no problem with working for the government of Abu Dhabi. On the contrary, I’m forever grateful for the commitment and resources of the proprietor.

My gripe is really with the other side, the offerers of corporate largesse, whether in the shape of facility trips, hospitality, right down to cigars.

Can’t they make the distinction between a high-level government policymaker, with the power to make decisions involving millions of dollars, and an old pen-pusher hacking out a few hundred words now and again in an attempt to keep readers informed, educated and entertained? I discussed this with another contact at an excellent lunch at La Petite Maison this week.

I’ve known him for years, and while the conversation was mainly about business, we strayed into other areas too – football, families, mutual friends. It was all great fun.

When the bill came, my companion said: “Well Frank, you won’t have any problems with bribery or corruption laws today. I’m going to pay for lunch because you’re my mate.” Now that’s class.

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