This is how merit laundering happens: I post a normal or high quality post, then someone gives me 50 merits, so I'm left with 25 smerits, then I send 25 smerits to another compatriot, then he will receive 30 merits from merit source, then he sends me 10 merits and so on. I would say that most of the times, local board members send inadequate volume of merits to their compatriots. Btw it's hard to argue whether person deserves 1 merit, 2 merit or 50 merits because everyone can back it up simply: I felt so.
This is to assume that every merit source has a scheme to give more merits to their compatriots than to others. Which doesn't make any sense.
I give more merits to the participants of the Portuguese tab, because I spend most of my time there, not just because I speak Portuguese.
In addition, there is no rule or standard on how to distribute merits, so I think it is difficult to define whether a merit is or is not given well.
Therefore, this idea that there is a merit distribution scheme in local tabs does not make any sense.