When we were there in June only one guy spoke english on the airport. A 737 engineer from memory. Grab him if you can, worth his weight in gold.
Paid everything cash, but again not sure if this was a necessity.
Ditto the suspicion. I went to the main admin building to get some met and file the fpl ( had to be done manually with air traffic for some reason that day). Went to the loo and my escort actually came into the gents and stood outside the cubicle.
From memory though nothing really extraordinary. Just allow double the time for everything than you would normally. And drop the customs guys a few cans of beer/coke when you arrive. They asked us for it as we left which we obliged. Think had we offered it at the start things may have been expedited.