Corrupt QA - QA Engineer Workday Employee Review

The payroll qa leadership is especially plagued with corrupt practices. Let me highlight a couple of things. We recently received our compensation updates. A lot of capable people were not given promotions even though they deserved it. And the message that was given is that you need to be performing at the next level to earn a promotion. Ok. But, recently we had a QA reorg, and there was a Sr.management opportunity given to somebody who was new to the team. They were not performing at the next level: lack of experience and capability. They have shown incompetence and are yet given opportunities WTF? Is there something illicit between sr management and the layers?