I Paid A Bribe

By kekepana.com

It’s not what you think. I Paid A Bribe is a website I have been playing with the past few days, given my long-term aversion to economic corruption. The site, a creation of the Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship & Democracy, provides a way for ordinary citizens to complain about the petty (and larger) corruption that pervades lives in India. Based in Bangalore, the Janaagraha Centre and its website has collected thousands of stories of bribes asked for and paid in 301 Indian cities from throughout the subcontinent. The stories are used to expose the culprits and to press government to go after them. Much of it is petty bribery to get a functionary to stamp a document or to pay off a traffic cop, but some get pretty sizeable.

The purpose of this post is not to single out India, though that is warranted, but to encourage similar creative uses of the Net in other countries – even the supposedly mostly “incorruptible” rich countries.

Though many of the bribes reported have to do with domestic concerns in India, there are trade-related bribes on the site, including 159 complaints about Indian customs officials. Some of these concern clearance of cargo through Customs, others are smaller bribes to do things like bringing laptops or cellphones into the country. Educational reading.