Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
he was the chairman. The fact that the company itself was delivering the payment would,
of course, increase its hold over him. Many public servants have to pay such bribes to get
their jobs. They range sometimes all the way from top ministry bureaucrats to the public
sector corporations' board directors and on to income-tax officials and traffic police. The
top people need to cover their costs by making money on policy decisions and contracts
they handle, as well as by helping their sponsors. Tax officials take bribes to clear files, and
police charge drivers a few hundred rupees for speeding or jumping traffic lights instead of
formally booking them. The more lucrative the job, the higher the price.
Corruption has also spread across the judiciary and the defence forces, notably the army,
which shows how graft has become embedded even in areas that are regarded as the bed-
rock of a society. As far back as 2007, Transparency International, the corruption monit-
oring organization, noted that while the upper judiciary could usually (but not always) be
regarded as relatively clean, there were many points at which court clerks, prosecutors and
police investigators could misuse their powers with a high level of discretion, especially in
that neutralise the deterrent impact of law,' said the report. People 'sought shortcuts' un-
lawfully through bribery, favours, hospitality or gifts. A prime example was unauthorized
building in Indian cities where construction and safety laws were flouted in connivance
with persons in authority. J.S. Anand, then the chief justice, said in 2005: 'Delay erodes the
rule of law and promotes resort to extra-judicial remedies with criminalisation of society
… Speedy justice alone is the remedy for the malaise.'
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Many of the bribe-generating ruses used in government and the public sector are also
prevalent in the Indian private sector where there is extensive corruption within and
between companies that goes far beyond giving and accepting minor favours. It is espe-
cially so in procurement departments where managers take bribes for placing contracts and
even for approving invoices when work is done. A partner in an international auditing firm
says that staff in recruitment departments demand regular payments of 10 per cent or more
of salaries from newly recruited employees, while clerks in accounts departments require
ance director working in India told me how the company's taxation staff created annoying
complications in their work that later vanished - he assumed after bribes had been extorted
and paid to tax officials by clients, presumably with a percentage being taken or retained
by his staff. There are also cases of accountants allowing clients improper favours and ig-
noring non-compliances and deviations in expectation of future rewards.
The Congress Role
