The Indian Art of Bribery
I have a thing for silly business ventures. Over the years I've tried to make my millions exporting all sorts of odds and ends from India to the United States, and have filled dozens of packages with saffron, journals, and most recently Royal Enfield motorcycles and Vespa scooters. The businesses all failed for two reasons. 1) I am not a good salesman; and, 2) I can't stand paying bribes.
When my last shipment of motorcycles made it to the port in New York I had to pay the local union $300 to move the crate ten feet from the warehouse floor onto a truck. Another couple hundred got tacked on in Bombay when the local dock don asked for his cut. For me, the added costs made the difference between making a profit and breaking even.
Bribery in New York is more or less confined to the transportation and housing industries, yet in India, it is impossible to get anything done at all without a little cash to ease the way. According to a report issued by Transparency International, a Swiss based NGO that rates these sorts of things, India demands more bribes than any other country in the world. It came in dead last in the index of 30 countries--beating even notoriously corrupt states Russia and China.
In order to get a government employee to switch on my power after it had been shut off (a free service) I had to slip the worker a hundred-rupee note--otherwise it would have taken two weeks for him "to get around to it". When I had a package delivered to a local post office I had to slip the postman an extra 30 rupees to pick it up. When I was getting my visa from the Indian High Commission in Malaysia touts outside offered to get the whole thing processed in a single day for me if I just coughed up $70 extra. And, I imagine, when I go to pay my electricity bill this afternoon I am going to have to pay someone even more to fix my broken meter.
It is no surprise to me that India has been rated the most bribery-friendly location on the planet. Between its ridiculously overbearing bureaucracy and corruption of public officials, I am glad that my own dealings with the government are minimal.
posted by Scott Carney @ 9:48 AM
8 comments
8 Comments:
u need to get the hang of how things work here. the system is wonderful, and u cud have gotten the bikes moved for a lesser fee only if ud known the system
ada-paavi --> typical Indian.
yes, it does happen.. but it depends on the region..
but the people are to blame too.. they are tempted to get the job done sooner.. so they'd rather cough up than stand in the RTO office queue for two days..
People will give you suggestions on how to "speed things up" even if you are against the practice.
I went many many times to get my marksheets attested from the university registrar. A family member exclaimed how naive I was to not take the hint when I was given different excuses. Never mind if you are against it in principle :-|
-gg
TTG - tipping is done in India too, its the ubiquitous baksheesh. Traiditonally tipping is done for menial jobs. On the other hand bribery is associated with someone in power/connections maybe to a public official, someone who wields influence and get the job done.
I get your point - tipping is a very controversial subject - take a look at blogs like waiterrant.net and you will see from discussions on some post. We had a very convoluted ethics training on what is appropriate as a gift when doing business in foreign countries and it irked me to no end that "facilitators" were allotted some money to get jobs done. It was sugar coating the act of bribing..
-gg
Thanks, Scott, for writing about bribery, which is something that lots of us loathe as much as you do.
But why does it exist? Why in the transportation and housing industries in New York? And why more generally in India?
It is clearly neither a culture nor country specific problem. And after we know where it exists, we need to examine why it exists there, and how can the situation be remedied?
It would be immensely useful if we focussed our attention on solving the problem.
The TI survey is about export business paying bribes to win businesses abroad. How did tipping waiters and barbers come into the picture? Obfuscation, as ususal...
Existence of corruption in the USA is no excuse for India's being corrupt. Kerala is the most health-conscious State in India. People go to hospitals for deliveries [of babies] there. Most hospitals are run by the government.
You are to give IRs 1000/- to the doctor to oversee the delivery; 250/- each to the nurses in the labour room, 100/- to the attendent that washes the newborn and Rs 300/- to the nurse that hands over your new heir to you outside the Labour room. Kerala is a State with 100% literacy. You will see that even here, you are 'born' INTO corruption.
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