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What corruption have you experienced in your life?
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The story
As an article clerk (trainee solicitor) in a law firm in Bombay, there was a lot of grunt work I was required to do. One of the things that I had to do for a transaction was to obtain publicly available documents from a particular Government office as a part of a corporate due diligence. All I was told was that I need to get X, Y, Z documents from this particular office. I’ll call it GO.
Now the law mandates that these documents should be made available to the public on the payment of a nominal fee. I went to the GO and asked for an application. This is more difficult than you think, because any Indian Government office will make you run from pillar to post to do the simplest thing. I think I spent an hour and an a half just trying to figure out how to get the application.
So I proudly fill up the application (no mistakes!) and hand it over to the correct officer. He tells me ‘Madam, time laagnar’ (Madam it’s going to take some time).[1]
How much time, I asked him. He stared at me vaguely and said – ‘Mi baghto’ (I have to see).
I told him I was prepared to wait and he asked me to wait outside. I waited for about an hour and went back in. He asked me to come the next day, because they couldn’t find the files.
The next morning, I went again and he didn’t entertain me at all – ‘Mi aataa khup busy aahe. Nantar ya’ (I am very busy right now, come later).
I went back in the afternoon. The man was gone. I asked his colleagues whether they could help me. They asked me what he had said to me. I recounted the events of the last two days like a dutiful parrot and they told me that I should come back tomorrow.
Lather, rinse and repeat.
I did this for about 4 days. My senior at work couldn’t understand what the hold up was. I told him what was happening and he looked at me with exasperation and yelled ‘Aakanksha, don’t you know what this man wants? Just give him a few hundred bucks, and finish it off. The client can’t wait forever’.
It then dawned on me that the guy was being uncooperative because he expected a bribe. I thought back to our interactions and realized how he was much more receptive to me earlier and had hinted at ‘speeding up’ the process somehow.
The story had a happy-ish end. I went back on day 5. The guy was just so sick of me and my ugly mug hanging around the GO, that he actually gave me the documents just to get rid of me. He deemed, perhaps not incorrectly, that I was too stupid to have realized that he wanted a bribe.
Some interesting info[2]
So, there are a lot of anti corruption laws worldwide. The US has a particularly stringent law called the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (the ‘FCPA’) which applies to US corporations. Heavy penalties are inflicted if the US corporations, their subsidiaries, agents, joint venture partners or employees engage in corrupt practices anywhere in the world. In a jurisdiction like India, where many Government departments don’t even do what they are supposed to as of a matter of course, this becomes very tricky, especially because all foreign investors with any US connections (whether by way of capital or control) insist that their Indian partners or business associates agree to abide by this US law.[3]
Anyway, there is one small relaxation in the law (the FCPA), which is ‘speed money’. Speed money is the money that I would have paid to the Government office (let’s call him Shri Corruptkar) to speed up the process for obtaining the documents.
In hindsight, I know I could have obtained the documents on day one itself if I had helped Shri Corruptkar with some ‘chaai-paani’.[4]
[1] People in Government departments in Bombay speak in and respond well if spoken to in Marathi.
[2] Well interesting to me at least.
[3] Extra territorial jurisdiction of domestic laws is always contentious because it kind of ignores the sovereignty of the other nation.
[4] Literally, it means ‘tea-water’ and is a euphemism for bribes.
As an article clerk (trainee solicitor) in a law firm in Bombay, there was a lot of grunt work I was required to do. One of the things that I had to do for a transaction was to obtain publicly available documents from a particular Government office as a part of a corporate due diligence. All I was told was that I need to get X, Y, Z documents from this particular office. I’ll call it GO.
Now the law mandates that these documents should be made available to the public on the payment of a nominal fee. I went to the GO and asked for an application. This is more difficult than you think, because any Indian Government office will make you run from pillar to post to do the simplest thing. I think I spent an hour and an a half just trying to figure out how to get the application.
So I proudly fill up the application (no mistakes!) and hand it over to the correct officer. He tells me ‘Madam, time laagnar’ (Madam it’s going to take some time).[1]
How much time, I asked him. He stared at me vaguely and said – ‘Mi baghto’ (I have to see).
I told him I was prepared to wait and he asked me to wait outside. I waited for about an hour and went back in. He asked me to come the next day, because they couldn’t find the files.
The next morning, I went again and he didn’t entertain me at all – ‘Mi aataa khup busy aahe. Nantar ya’ (I am very busy right now, come later).
I went back in the afternoon. The man was gone. I asked his colleagues whether they could help me. They asked me what he had said to me. I recounted the events of the last two days like a dutiful parrot and they told me that I should come back tomorrow.
Lather, rinse and repeat.
I did this for about 4 days. My senior at work couldn’t understand what the hold up was. I told him what was happening and he looked at me with exasperation and yelled ‘Aakanksha, don’t you know what this man wants? Just give him a few hundred bucks, and finish it off. The client can’t wait forever’.
It then dawned on me that the guy was being uncooperative because he expected a bribe. I thought back to our interactions and realized how he was much more receptive to me earlier and had hinted at ‘speeding up’ the process somehow.
The story had a happy-ish end. I went back on day 5. The guy was just so sick of me and my ugly mug hanging around the GO, that he actually gave me the documents just to get rid of me. He deemed, perhaps not incorrectly, that I was too stupid to have realized that he wanted a bribe.
Some interesting info[2]
So, there are a lot of anti corruption laws worldwide. The US has a particularly stringent law called the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (the ‘FCPA’) which applies to US corporations. Heavy penalties are inflicted if the US corporations, their subsidiaries, agents, joint venture partners or employees engage in corrupt practices anywhere in the world. In a jurisdiction like India, where many Government departments don’t even do what they are supposed to as of a matter of course, this becomes very tricky, especially because all foreign investors with any US connections (whether by way of capital or control) insist that their Indian partners or business associates agree to abide by this US law.[3]
Anyway, there is one small relaxation in the law (the FCPA), which is ‘speed money’. Speed money is the money that I would have paid to the Government office (let’s call him Shri Corruptkar) to speed up the process for obtaining the documents.
In hindsight, I know I could have obtained the documents on day one itself if I had helped Shri Corruptkar with some ‘chaai-paani’.[4]
[1] People in Government departments in Bombay speak in and respond well if spoken to in Marathi.
[2] Well interesting to me at least.
[3] Extra territorial jurisdiction of domestic laws is always contentious because it kind of ignores the sovereignty of the other nation.
[4] Literally, it means ‘tea-water’ and is a euphemism for bribes.
Related QuestionsMore Answers Below
On my frequent trips to Mexico I have been hit up for and I have paid la mordida (The Bite) to several officers when I found myself in situations where I might be arrested or that I didn't want additional police scrutiny into my actions. It happens.
The thing that I learned was that you have to wait to be asked for it or you'll have even more problems than when you started. It was usually anywhere $10-30 with the high being $150 when a party I was holding at a friend's beach house got a little too noisy.NOTE: I got the $150 back from the guests before they left.
Frankly, it sucks and I'm glad that most American police officers no longer openly take bribes like this. You have to be careful when you do it (you always have the money you are going to give them by itself in one pocket); you are not going to get change. And, if you piss them off, you've just decided to give them the contents of your wallet and your jewelry, if you are wearing any.
It's also sad as many people who cannot pay (some gringos, but mostly locals) will end up in jail and they may catch a beating if La policia are in a foul mood that evening. I would advise most Americans who travel to Mexico to confine themselves to the tourist areas and to steer clear of trouble.
If you don't, then it may prove to be a very costly vacation.
The thing that I learned was that you have to wait to be asked for it or you'll have even more problems than when you started. It was usually anywhere $10-30 with the high being $150 when a party I was holding at a friend's beach house got a little too noisy.NOTE: I got the $150 back from the guests before they left.
Frankly, it sucks and I'm glad that most American police officers no longer openly take bribes like this. You have to be careful when you do it (you always have the money you are going to give them by itself in one pocket); you are not going to get change. And, if you piss them off, you've just decided to give them the contents of your wallet and your jewelry, if you are wearing any.
It's also sad as many people who cannot pay (some gringos, but mostly locals) will end up in jail and they may catch a beating if La policia are in a foul mood that evening. I would advise most Americans who travel to Mexico to confine themselves to the tourist areas and to steer clear of trouble.
If you don't, then it may prove to be a very costly vacation.
This happened to me while I was a student in university in Mexico.
One Tuesday morning I woke to the sound of my alarm going off repeatedly next to my bed, I look at the time which seemed like a blurry 7:15 AM, followed by a sudden realization that I had overslept and was already 15 minutes late to my first class of the day. (This being because the night before, I stayed up late working on a project due for that same class.) I rush out of my bed, change my clothes quickly, get in my car and drive off to school.
While rushing 10-15 kmph above the speed limit, a patrol car pulls me over to the side of the road. One of two officers gets out of the car while the other stays back and reports my license plate through the radio.
Officer: "License and registration please sir."
Me: "Yes sir, here you go."
Officer: "Do you know how fast you were going sir?"
Me: "Maybe 75 kmph sir, I was in a rush to get to school, I'm late for class."
Officer: "You do know this is a 60 kmph zone right?"
Me: "I do sir, I'm sorry for speeding, I must have lost track of how fast I was going."
Officer: "So, how do we fix this?"
Me: "Well officer, I'll gladly take the ticket, I'll be happy to pay the fine, I made a mistake."
Officer: "Is that so? The fine is around 2,500 Pesos (~200 USD) seems pretty expensive."
Me: "I did not realize it was so expensive." (Actually, I did know exactly how much a speeding ticket was in that zone, it was around 550 Pesos, but I knew he wanted to make a quick buck by intimidating me.)
Officer: "Yeah, you seem so calm, do you have that kind of money?"
Me: "No sir, I work during the evenings, I'll manage a way to pay my fine."
Officer: "Hold on one second."
The officer heads back to his car, talks with his partner for around 15 minutes, then comes back to my window. Obviously, I wouldn't make it to my class now, so I was starting to feel pretty frustrated, but there was no way in hell I was going to give these bastards a couple of hundred pesos for letting me go.
Officer: "Sir, my partner tells me that your license plate seems to have some damage on the edge, why is that?"
Me: "Damage sir?"
Officer: "Yes, the edge of the license plate seems to be scratched, this is your license plate right?"
Me: "Of course, it matches the one in my registration."
Officer: "The thing is that, we have the right to detain your car and possibly you along with a more hefty fine due to the license plate being damaged."
I try get out of the car to look at the license plate when the officer stops the door.
Officer: "Where are you going?"
Me: "I'm going to see my license plate sir, I have never noticed any scratch on it, It's not like I take it off to play around with it or anything."
Officer: "Stay right here, I'm going to call a second patrol vehicle just to have our eyes on you, you're starting to get out of control."
Me: "I'm not out of control sir, I just want to see what you're talking about."
Officer: "Stay here!"
The officer steps back, allegedly calling for backup on the radio and goes back to the patrol car to talk once more with his partner for another 5 minutes, then comes back.
Officer: "You know, this is all going to add up to about 20,000 Pesos my friend, it could be easier, give me 500 Pesos and go to school."
Me: "I'm not paying you sir, this is not going to end like that, call the second patrol vehicle, I know I'm right."
Officer: "Now you're giving me an attitude?"
Me: "No sir."
Officer: "You better calm down kid."
The second officer comes up to the car to join his partner.
2nd Officer: "What the hell is going on!? What are you doing!?"
Me: "I'm not doing anything sir, I'm trying to get to cla—"
2nd Officer: "Look kid, if you don't cooperate, this is not going to end well for you."
Me: "I'm cooperating all the way officer, I'm trying to talk some sense into the situation because your partn—"
2nd Officer: "You know exactly what I fucking mean kid, the second patrol vehicle is on its way, and that's when it's going to get really ugly, because then the money is going to have to be much more to make us go away, and you don't want to be detained by us."
Now, for you to understand this next part, you must know that this whole story was happening during one of the worst months of the Mexican drug war and the police corruption was in an all time high. Therefore, President Calderón (The President of Mexico at the time.) had deployed army and federal police troops to every major city in Mexico to counterattack the local police forces due to high corruption and had a nation-wide campaign and tip line requesting the people to tip said troops about local police harassment and general crime-related behaviors.
Me: "Ok officer, let me call a friend of mine to lend me some money and ask him to come down, one second."
I close my window so they wouldn't hear my phone conversation and I called the federal police tip line, I inform them of the situation and ask for help, give them my location and they assure me to calm down and they tell me they will be there in less than 5 minutes. Once I rolled down my window...
Me: "Ok sir, a friend is on the way, he says he'll be here in less than 5 minutes."
Officer: "Good."
3 or 4 minutes passed and rest assured, the federal police arrive.
Federal Police Officer (FPO): "Is everything ok here gentlemen?"
Officer: "Yeah pal, we have the situation under control."
FPO: "Very well, why don't you two come back here and tell me what's going on."
A group of FPO's go with the two officers to interrogate them and one last one stayed with me.
2nd FPO: "Are you ok sir?"
Me: "Yes sir, thanks for coming."
2nd FPO: "That's what we're here for sir, do you have your documents?"
Me: "No sir, the two officers kept them."
2nd FPO: "Ok, hold on one second please."
The second FPO walks over to the group and comes back instantly.
2nd FPO: "Here you go sir, carry on and have a good day."
Me: "That's it?"
2nd FPO: "Yes sir, we have to follow a protocol immediately with these two officers, try not to speed around this area, it's starting to get pretty bad around here."
Me: "I won't, I promise."
I drive off to school and that's basically where my story it ends.
I'm not sure what happened to the two officers, but 3 or 4 weeks later, the entire local police force was detained and put to polygraph tests to see how many were actually corrupt, whoever failed would have to be laid off and questioned further regarding crimes they committed, not a single officer passed the test and the army and federal police patrolled the city until the first few weeks the new president, Enrique Peña Nieto, took power.
This is just one, and possibly one of the lightest stories around the Mexican drug war, there's so many things to tell that are much more horrible than this, thank god I have never been exposed to such a situation, but I know some people that have.
One Tuesday morning I woke to the sound of my alarm going off repeatedly next to my bed, I look at the time which seemed like a blurry 7:15 AM, followed by a sudden realization that I had overslept and was already 15 minutes late to my first class of the day. (This being because the night before, I stayed up late working on a project due for that same class.) I rush out of my bed, change my clothes quickly, get in my car and drive off to school.
While rushing 10-15 kmph above the speed limit, a patrol car pulls me over to the side of the road. One of two officers gets out of the car while the other stays back and reports my license plate through the radio.
Officer: "License and registration please sir."
Me: "Yes sir, here you go."
Officer: "Do you know how fast you were going sir?"
Me: "Maybe 75 kmph sir, I was in a rush to get to school, I'm late for class."
Officer: "You do know this is a 60 kmph zone right?"
Me: "I do sir, I'm sorry for speeding, I must have lost track of how fast I was going."
Officer: "So, how do we fix this?"
Me: "Well officer, I'll gladly take the ticket, I'll be happy to pay the fine, I made a mistake."
Officer: "Is that so? The fine is around 2,500 Pesos (~200 USD) seems pretty expensive."
Me: "I did not realize it was so expensive." (Actually, I did know exactly how much a speeding ticket was in that zone, it was around 550 Pesos, but I knew he wanted to make a quick buck by intimidating me.)
Officer: "Yeah, you seem so calm, do you have that kind of money?"
Me: "No sir, I work during the evenings, I'll manage a way to pay my fine."
Officer: "Hold on one second."
The officer heads back to his car, talks with his partner for around 15 minutes, then comes back to my window. Obviously, I wouldn't make it to my class now, so I was starting to feel pretty frustrated, but there was no way in hell I was going to give these bastards a couple of hundred pesos for letting me go.
Officer: "Sir, my partner tells me that your license plate seems to have some damage on the edge, why is that?"
Me: "Damage sir?"
Officer: "Yes, the edge of the license plate seems to be scratched, this is your license plate right?"
Me: "Of course, it matches the one in my registration."
Officer: "The thing is that, we have the right to detain your car and possibly you along with a more hefty fine due to the license plate being damaged."
I try get out of the car to look at the license plate when the officer stops the door.
Officer: "Where are you going?"
Me: "I'm going to see my license plate sir, I have never noticed any scratch on it, It's not like I take it off to play around with it or anything."
Officer: "Stay right here, I'm going to call a second patrol vehicle just to have our eyes on you, you're starting to get out of control."
Me: "I'm not out of control sir, I just want to see what you're talking about."
Officer: "Stay here!"
The officer steps back, allegedly calling for backup on the radio and goes back to the patrol car to talk once more with his partner for another 5 minutes, then comes back.
Officer: "You know, this is all going to add up to about 20,000 Pesos my friend, it could be easier, give me 500 Pesos and go to school."
Me: "I'm not paying you sir, this is not going to end like that, call the second patrol vehicle, I know I'm right."
Officer: "Now you're giving me an attitude?"
Me: "No sir."
Officer: "You better calm down kid."
The second officer comes up to the car to join his partner.
2nd Officer: "What the hell is going on!? What are you doing!?"
Me: "I'm not doing anything sir, I'm trying to get to cla—"
2nd Officer: "Look kid, if you don't cooperate, this is not going to end well for you."
Me: "I'm cooperating all the way officer, I'm trying to talk some sense into the situation because your partn—"
2nd Officer: "You know exactly what I fucking mean kid, the second patrol vehicle is on its way, and that's when it's going to get really ugly, because then the money is going to have to be much more to make us go away, and you don't want to be detained by us."
Now, for you to understand this next part, you must know that this whole story was happening during one of the worst months of the Mexican drug war and the police corruption was in an all time high. Therefore, President Calderón (The President of Mexico at the time.) had deployed army and federal police troops to every major city in Mexico to counterattack the local police forces due to high corruption and had a nation-wide campaign and tip line requesting the people to tip said troops about local police harassment and general crime-related behaviors.
Me: "Ok officer, let me call a friend of mine to lend me some money and ask him to come down, one second."
I close my window so they wouldn't hear my phone conversation and I called the federal police tip line, I inform them of the situation and ask for help, give them my location and they assure me to calm down and they tell me they will be there in less than 5 minutes. Once I rolled down my window...
Me: "Ok sir, a friend is on the way, he says he'll be here in less than 5 minutes."
Officer: "Good."
3 or 4 minutes passed and rest assured, the federal police arrive.
Federal Police Officer (FPO): "Is everything ok here gentlemen?"
Officer: "Yeah pal, we have the situation under control."
FPO: "Very well, why don't you two come back here and tell me what's going on."
A group of FPO's go with the two officers to interrogate them and one last one stayed with me.
2nd FPO: "Are you ok sir?"
Me: "Yes sir, thanks for coming."
2nd FPO: "That's what we're here for sir, do you have your documents?"
Me: "No sir, the two officers kept them."
2nd FPO: "Ok, hold on one second please."
The second FPO walks over to the group and comes back instantly.
2nd FPO: "Here you go sir, carry on and have a good day."
Me: "That's it?"
2nd FPO: "Yes sir, we have to follow a protocol immediately with these two officers, try not to speed around this area, it's starting to get pretty bad around here."
Me: "I won't, I promise."
I drive off to school and that's basically where my story it ends.
I'm not sure what happened to the two officers, but 3 or 4 weeks later, the entire local police force was detained and put to polygraph tests to see how many were actually corrupt, whoever failed would have to be laid off and questioned further regarding crimes they committed, not a single officer passed the test and the army and federal police patrolled the city until the first few weeks the new president, Enrique Peña Nieto, took power.
This is just one, and possibly one of the lightest stories around the Mexican drug war, there's so many things to tell that are much more horrible than this, thank god I have never been exposed to such a situation, but I know some people that have.
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