Due, I'm not so sure it is that easy for a company to figure out how many shares are out there. I do believe they know how many share holders there are but do not know how many shares each share holder has (possibly due to privacy issues?). I could be wrong and if I am, somebody please correct me, but that is how I've understood it.
And thus, part of the reason why everything is so corrupt as you mention... because they are allowed to be! It shouldn't be so hard, if not impossible, for a company to determine this... but it is!