Where are we Corrupt then???

Where are we Corrupt then???

Ferdous H Khan

Corruption—A highly saleable word under all governments. People are accustomed hearing this term in there day to day conversations. General masses do not react by raising eye brows, as if something untouchable has occurred. Masses have even forgotten to ascribe it as a crime of the society. It has been taken as a way of life within our society. A whole some encompassing term. The term has been related specifically with the third world countries. It for that does not mean that the first and the second worlds do not have this in there society. In all societies masses feel the affect of corruption in different magnitude. The affect can be felt from the highest authority to the end destination-grave. It’s survival solely depends on the scarcity of resource, manipulation of law and disrespect for others. To deal with this situation great Organizations have come up to do profitable business on the issue. They intend to circulate the meaning of this term, discuss it’s evil affect and consequences at individual level. The business starts with allotment of funds, expenditure in travel and allowances, claiming compensation for the time spent to collate and assess measures to grade countries and governments.

The other groups in the race arrange for seminars to discuss on the modalities to fight this evil-corruption. These groups spend days together from morning to night—discussing on the issue to go to it’s roots. Now to bell the cat is the issue, meaning curing through the roots. For plant Kingdome root means base. Labyrinth of roots providing food and nourishment to the body. Provides strong foot hold, to withstand winds and storms, floods and rain. In a system of corruption which means opposite to what root means in the plant kingdom. Moreover, in this case root means the head –up to down and the natures way—down to up. Therefore to tag root in such case as root cause is inappropriate and improper. Now dear readers, to deal with any cure for the system you have to have proper weapon to deal with. It could me physical, theoretical, medication or systematic approach. Without identifying proper weapon, call for fight, is only making gesture without hoping for the result. Then in this case the call for fight issued by the seminar or organization are only intentions against the system which remains encapsuled in time.

Others come down heavily on dealing with corruption—system change is there ‘war cry’. The demands reverberates throughout the forum. We all give voice to the cry, by the way, what do you think this could mean? What is the system? What changes are we expecting within the running system? For the sake of discussion let’s proceed with a generic official procedure. The process starts with an initiator, who is essential to initiate an issue for resolve. He submits his request in writing to the concerned office. The received request now needs to be registered and sorted basing on the subject matter. This phase is the lowest strata of decision process. We must keep in mind here, that a major activity is going to take place—which will decide it’s future course of action. In this stage the concerned officer to deal with the request is selected. Tragedy unfolds now, because to process the case an input is necessary in relation to the existing policy on the issue. Here the most important individual is the clerk, having specialized for a long period in the same office. His ways of putting in perspective will matter in drawing result positively or negatively. The officer being often rotated to adhere to the policy of fixed period posting. The officer with a colorful towel thrown over the synthetic upholstered revolving and swiveling chair gives him an aura of pseudo ego of all knowing. Do you have any idea why officers spread towels on the back of their chairs? It’s like throwing in towel during boxing bout by the coach—sign of surrender. Now the signature of the officer on the note forwarded by the clerk validates it for the next stage processing.

The clerk now grabs the opportunity and requests the initiator to arrange “speedup system” resources. A good move indeed, because we still have the colonial British system of functioning. Initiator should not see the British officer in person, buffer was in place to give the British officer an atmosphere of demi-god like. In this particular case also, direct access to the officer may cause “SARKAR BAHADUR”-the officer, to negate the whole effort. A disaster for all the effort made so far-not worth it. Instead the initiator grease the clerk for activating the system for “speed move of the request”. The concions of the clerk is clear. The grease is his rightful due. He has put in his experience and knowledge behind this whole effort. A thinking akin to an intellectual. We are still in the stage of the clerk and junior officer. The process is ripe now to move across the corridor to another building and the guy responsible for this activity is PEON (authorize carrier of the document).

This guy, the authorize carrier thinks that the initiator is going to make much gain out of it. Therefore, he feels that he has some right of privilege associated with it. Till now did we come across any corrupt practices? It’s in the way of thinking more then in reality. The project has had all experience of travel and have ultimately reached the second height level before finally getting the sanction seal. This stage is for bargaining—here the value of the project and the fund available in this particular head is tallied. The initiator has to now recast some of the endorsement in the original document. This effort to the initiator is perfectly within the norm, as he needs his sanction. To the officer or bargainer at this stage it’s right, as the particular head has an allotted amount which is more then what is need to complete the task. More over due to observation in the early stages of this paper much time was lost. Now we are nearing the end of a fiscal year. It would be difficult to return the money. If, returned then in the coming year we may be deprived of this allotment, how would this office benefit? Such serious question initiates more queries then it answers. The gentleman therefore, has no other option but to bag the surplus amount of this project.

As the fund will be drawn by the initiator. It is his responsibility to pay the amount to the bargainer for reimbursement in the chain. The amount being huge, and likely to be played in any sting operations. Thus, the cash is absorbed into denominations of green bucks from the black market. A genuine pro nationalist behavior. He can be called a true nationalist for bringing green buck in circulation in international accounts. This also symbolizes progress?? Would you call this corruption? Such a great success calls for celebration, the celebration is to celebrate the bonding of the new chain in the system. The whole process has brought the friendly bond of peon to the boss in harmony. This would require no further fine tuning. The work efficiency will increase in the days ahead. The family members of the chain can enjoy holidays in dream land and the bosses can connive to get involved in another set of operations

So we can now defend in saying that all the process involved from discussion, seminars, system change cry and the creation of the chain of efficiency is all for efficiency. Where are we corrupt then?????