This. So, so, so many flavors of the "abuse of the public to make a few bucks" that is codified in the business models and job duties and KPIs of all sorts of organizations is only viable because people bend over and take it. If there was real risk that came with abusing the public employees would either a) not do that part of their jobs b) demand compensation, likely making the abuse not economically worthwhile c) seek other jobs. Any of these cases would force entities who are abusing the public as part of regular business to change their business or bleed out and die.
Or we could just bring back bribing....