Where I come from, that would mean every car could be passed without being roadworthy, as no garage would voluntarily declare a car they've been maintaining as unroadworthy, plus you could just throw your mate a 50 euro note

Here in the Netherlands you can get your car MOT’d (APK in Dutch) at most garages. The person doing the inspection has to be licensed though and they can lose their license if found to be passing cars they shouldn’t.

After they enter a car into the system as passed they can get a random inspection by someone from the RDW (government service for road traffic) who will double-check their work.