In a country so large with so many different government agencies, entities, organizations, and interests, just about anything you can think of will have happened at some point. The question is whether it's going on at large scale, whether it's the common practice or rare.

You're trying to use one example to prove that the practice is common, when in fact that's false, it's not common it's rare. It's the exception, not the rule; which is exactly why it makes for an attention getting story.