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Home / World

It's hard graft when bribes are crooked

27 Mar, 2002 08:05 AM3 mins to read

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By RAHUL BEDI in New Delhi

Corruption in India isn't what it used to be. Bribes across northern Punjab state and neighbouring regions are being paid with counterfeit money smuggled in from Pakistan.

A senior police officer handed over Rs4 million ($187,700) to ease his daughter's recruitment into Government service.

He spread a
further Rs2 million among officials to ensure a decent grade in the entrance test.

The young woman got the job. But the bribed officials got the hump when they discovered the cash was fake.

About the same time, a senior Punjab minister received a large sum for services rendered.

He sent an assistant to deposit it in a private bank, but the aide returned with the money - and a warning from the bank to get rid of it as quickly as possible.

Criminal syndicates on either side of the porous India-Pakistan border are doing big business in counterfeit notes.

People know they have to pay bribes to get anything done, so they are buying the cheap fake notes to keep their costs down.

The price for counterfeit currency in Punjab is between Rs40 and Rs60 for every Pakistani-made Rs100 note, depending on the buyer's bargaining skills and the amount required.

The right contacts can ensure that Pakistani counterfeit currency is available even more cheaply, says a police officer who admits to being involved in the racket.

Free-market rules apply: The more you buy, the cheaper the counterfeit cash becomes.

An 18-month-long search for one honest Government employee in Punjab proved futile, but uncovered nearly 300 corrupt bureaucrats.

The Government in India's most prosperous province failed to find any official worthy of the Rs100,000 ($4700) award for the "most honest officer" announced by former chief minister Prakash Singh Badal.

The state Vigilance Department paid Rs660 million in rewards to informers who tipped it off about corrupt officers.

But even the informers turned out to be crooked. Many, after collecting their reward, refused to give evidence against the officials they had fingered.

Transparency International, an anti-corruption watchdog group based in Berlin, has found India to be the world's eighth most corrupt nation.

Bribery has always been a way of life there.

A poll conducted in the capital, New Delhi, and five other cities by the Centre for Media Studies found that more than 40 per cent of Government officials admitted to having paid a bribe to employees from other departments.

Almost half of the 5400 people surveyed said they had paid to speed up work or ensure the necessary paperwork is done, and a third confessed to having used the services of middlemen.

The survey also showed that 81 per cent never complained about giving bribes, and 48 per cent blamed politicians for perpetuating graft.

Sixty-three per cent agreed that corruption was not being tackled seriously but said they had become resigned to it.

The survey found Ahmedabad in the west and the southern city of Hyderabad were India's "bribe capitals".

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