8 charts that show that corruption is still a way of life in India
51% citizens paid a bribe in the last 12 months to get out of trouble
Over half the citizens surveyed paid a bribe in the last 12 months. It’s an improvement over last year when Transparency International recorded that 56% paid bribes. However, the improvement isn’t by much.
They claim that 'it was the only way to get work done'
The most common reason for paying a bribe to a government official is that ‘it was the only way to get work done’ and is. If it hadn’t been, citizens claim that it was the only way to fast-track their work. Without the bribe, it would have taken significantly longer.
Most of the bribes were paid out in cash
The primary mode of bribing officials is still cash, but one-third of the citizens have paid bribes indirectly through agents. The incidence of ‘agents’ coming into the picture has shown a 5% jump over 2018 when only 25% of the respondents reported paying through a third-party.
Bribes are being paid even when CCTVs are monitoring government offices
Government officials are accepting bribes even in offices that are equipped with functional CCTVs. This is despite the fact that the Prevention of Corruption Act 2018 entails seven years of imprisonment or a fine or both if anyone is caught giving a bribe.
Bribes are prevalent not just with police and property registration but other top departments as well
The police department, property registration, municipality, and transport are the top departments where bribes are being demanded. This shows that even though centralised services may have reduced corruption, most citizen services are still subject to bribery.
Even with new laws and claims of reduction in corruption, most citizens see bribery continuing as before
In 2018, the Indian government identified corrupt employees in the Finance Ministry and relieved them of their duties.
The government repeated this same exercise this year with the tax department.
It needs to continue to do this in order to reduce the incidence of corruption and set a precedent of intolerance against bribery, the report said. Transparency International India also recommends that the same level of vigilance should be employed by state governments to reduce corruption at their level.
Most states do not have a functioning hotline to report bribery and corruption
An obstacle in the implementation of anti-corruption laws at a state and local level is that there is no functional hotline to report the demands of bribes. Even if a citizen wanted to expose that they were being extorted for money in exchange for getting their work done, they wouldn’t know where to go.
The government hasn’t taken any steps to improve the situation — even if they have, citizens don’t think it was very effective
Citizens don’t seem to have any faith in the existing system to curb corruption. Most of them report that the state and local governments haven’t taken any steps to improve the current state of affairs. Others report that even though some movement has happened, it hasn’t done much to improve the situation — bribery is still prevalent.
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