Bribery

Question: If a government employee has to do some official work but is demanding a bribe, what should we do?

Solution: Well, for this you need to have real courage. If you have courage, act on this lecture of mine. If you don't have courage, then I can't tell you anything, then just bear with it. If a government employee won't do your legitimate work, what solution do you have? And if a government employee isn't doing your legitimate work because he's demanding a bribe, what solution do you have? There are two kinds of government employees found, well there's a third kind too, the honest ones, but the system is set up such that a chain of four people has to carry out the work, three may be honest, but if one is dishonest, the whole cycle jams. That's where the problems lie.

I won't talk about the honest ones, because they don't create problems. Now, of the two kinds, one kind is just naturally lazy by nature, they do their work slowly, come tomorrow, come the day after, come next week, they're just naturally like that, it's not that they have their eye on getting a bribe from you. Now, I'm not saying that someone who works lazily is doing right, no. If he's being lazy in carrying out his official duties, he's being disrespectful, he's not performing his duty properly. So why don't people write a formal complaint against him? Government employees have become spoiled precisely because of the kind of thing I'm talking about: I go to get some work done, he says come tomorrow, I go tomorrow, he says come the day after, I go the day after, and in the end I'm left standing at a crossroads: either I ask him whether he wants something in return for doing my work, or I go straight to his superior's office and say, look, that head clerk, that clerk, my such-and-such work is pending and he's just sitting on it, not doing it.

Now in the second situation, when you go to an officer and say, sir, he's not doing my work, or you go to his superior officer and say the same thing, you're only complaining verbally, and he calls the employee in and gives him a verbal scolding. In twenty percent of cases this actually gets the work done, but in eighty percent of cases it doesn't. Why? You need to develop awareness. You've gone to get a legitimate piece of work done, it's lawful, it's due, and no one is doing it, someone is being lazy about it, so right then write an application on a plain sheet of paper addressed to that officer. Write, to the honourable such-and-such officer, below that write, application requesting action against such-and-such employee, below that write, sir, this was my problem, I have been coming to this employee about this problem since such-and-such date, this employee is not doing my work and is not performing his duties properly, therefore action should be taken against him.

Now there's a world of difference between verbally begging and this written application. Once that officer receives this written application and gives it a diary number, it becomes a nightmare for that employee who was being lazy about your work. You can curse at a government employee, you can hit a government employee, you can do whatever to a government employee, as long as it's not in writing, none of it carries any weight, no one will care that he cursed at me or hit me. But once a written application goes in and the officer marks it for action and calls for a report, you cannot imagine what can happen to that employee. Action has to be taken on that application, and that action gets attached to his annual confidential report (ACR). That application can block his promotion, and if ten such applications go in against one employee, action starts against him under the PEDA Act (Provincially Executed Development Authorities/Efficiency and Discipline law), asking, why is everyone upset with you specifically?

He'll get caught up in such a spin that afterward, when you walk into his office, he'll stand up and salute you, saying, come in sir, what work do you have, let me do it first, because he knows word of this will spread. We just keep being afraid, afraid, thinking, if I file a complaint, he'll create three more problems, he'll delay this, that, I have no enmity with him at all, brother, you're not from his neighbourhood, not from his area, who knows what area he's come from to take up this job here, you're just going to claim your right. If you're in the right, that's the only question that matters, if you're in the right, then fine, let him do whatever he wants to do, don't be afraid to pursue your right.

This country hasn't been able to progress since 1947 for exactly this reason, that we get scared. We're ready to run around ten thousand times just to keep one employee happy, when he's not related to us at all, not our maternal uncle's son, not our paternal uncle's son, not anyone's relative at all, and keeping him happy isn't going to get us cars or plazas or houses. He's been given a duty, he draws a salary every month for performing that duty. If he doesn't perform it, take him on through constitutional and lawful means.

Now the second kind comes up, the bribery kind, where someone says a particular person is demanding a bribe from me. Let me clarify one thing here. In my experience, a government employee never demands a bribe upfront for a piece of work that is due to be done. When does he demand it? As I said before, he'll keep stringing you along, stringing you along, until in the end you yourself say, look, what do you want, just get it done. That's how bribes get demanded for work that is legitimately due, and I'm giving this lecture about bribery for legitimate, due work, not for work that isn't due, because for work that isn't due, the other person offers the bribe of his own free will.

That too has two sides, which I'll shed light on later. Now, for legitimate work, if he's demanding a bribe, ninety percent of people start bargaining, ten percent go and say, sir, look, he's demanding money, he's demanding money, he calls him in. Now, this poor fellow doesn't realize that the one I'm complaining to also gets a share sent to him from whatever money the other one is demanding from me. He'll call the employee in, saying, what's the problem here, and the employee will explain some issue, saying, sir, this and that, and this person here was telling me it's a bribe, no sir, these are just genuine problems, why would I take a bribe, given these problems how can I even do this work? He fabricates his own excuses. But don't go about it verbally, put it in writing, that he's demanding a bribe, he's not doing the work, and if he still doesn't act on your written application, go to his superior officer. The whole system isn't rotten, there are just a few black sheep, the whole system isn't spoiled, even today in Pakistan you'll find some officer or other who will take it up, and once a bribe-taking employee realizes this person isn't going to stop, that he's going to go all the way to the top with a written application saying this man is demanding a bribe, he'll stop, saying, I'll do the work, why would I demand a bribe? Put everything in writing.

Now, there's also the case where the work itself is meant to be done improperly, done by paying a bribe. In that case, who's going to complain about whom? Well, here there's another party involved too. Suppose I go and say, my work isn't going to happen the legitimate way, sir, how much money do you want to get it done, and he says, no matter what, one lakh rupees. Now, from the other side, the opposing party goes and says, sir, officer, whatever you've been offered, this work simply can't be done, this is a loss to me, and I am legally in the right. Within a minute it'll come out whether he took a bribe or not, some are clever enough that if the other side gave one lakh, they'll tell you, give one lakh and a quarter and we'll decide in your favour.

Now if he takes the bribe and does the work, what solution does the other party have? The other party's solution is to immediately petition the anti-corruption department. Formally write an application stating that he has taken a bribe from the opposing party in this matter, that he has done this work after taking a bribe, that you should investigate this matter, that this work cannot lawfully be done. Write that application, demand action against him through registration of a case, attach your affidavit with it, and then see what happens to that government employee.

I can say with confidence: if we, the people of Pakistan, stand firm to claim our rights, look, in one department there's one employee, and the people who come to him to get work done number in the thousands, and see how one man has made monkeys of thousands. We never test our own strength. If we test our strength, everything will change. They say, don't they, that in courts the great-grandfather files the case and the great-grandson hears the verdict. Stand firm, on every hearing date tell your lawyer, I don't want another date, I want my work done. A hundred pointless dates are being given, a hundred pointless dates will turn into twenty, save the time, let the verdict be whatever it will be, but let there be a verdict. We just keep being afraid, drive that fear out. No one can take a bribe if you stand firm on your right. Let me tell you one more thing: in the anti-corruption department itself, not everyone there is spotless either, so if you're taking this action in that department, go after them too if needed: brother, why don't you listen to me, why are you making me come here every single day? Give it to his officer in writing: why is he making me come here every day, I've stepped into this field to cleanse this country of this cancer, so why is he treating me this way?