Six tentacles of corruption

By Vijay Kumar

1. Leakage in the assessment and collection of tax revenues. The small tax base, large-scale evasion of taxes and oppression and extortion of honest taxpayers by the unscrupulous tax collectors have not only generated consistent shortfalls in revenues and large budgetary deficits but promoted a buoyant black economy and conspicuous consumption by a small class of tax evaders and corrupt tax collectors. The inequities from this concentration of ill-gotten wealth are leading to serious social fragmentation.

2. The government contracts and purchases of goods and services by different departments and ministries have conferred huge windfall gains to those authorizing these contracts and purchases and those who are building and supplying them. The recent history of commissions, kickbacks and foreign deposits is too well known that it does not need any repetition but it simply illustrates the gravity of the problem. Not only the country is stuck with shoddy and poor quality works and goods and services but the inflated public expenditures are one of the main contributory factors in the financial distress and heavy indebtedness faced by the country.

3. While the managers and employees of PSUs are "making hay while the sun shines" the country is coming to the brink of financial disaster by absorbing the losses (man-made) of these enterprises. The public utility bills are out of reach for a common hard-working honest family while the breakdown in power, water and other services is too frequent.

4. The nationalized commercial banks and development financial institutions have made a few thousand families fabulously rich but made the rest of the population pay the price for their malfeasance.

5. Fifth, the recruitment, postings and transfers in all government ministries, departments and corporations are largely made either in exchange of outright pecuniary favours or on purely political considerations. The result is that the government offices are saddled, barring some honourable exceptions, with incompetent and dishonest functionaries who are always trying to please their bosses or political masters while being completely oblivious to the grievances of the common man whom they are supposed to serve. The culture of sycophancy and catering to the whims of that in power has taken firm roots and the courage to speak out the truth and render professional and objective advice to the politicians has simply died down. While the upper echelons of the bureaucracy remain busy in meeting the demands of those in power, the clerks and lower functionaries harass, extort and misbehave with the poor public who come to their offices for legitimate need. The police officials are perceived as a menace by the ordinary citizen rather than as a protector of their life and property.

6. Another avenue for making a fast buck and becoming rich overnight, particularly in the past, has been to lay your hands on a licence or permit of any kind - construction, import, monopoly enterprise or obtain plots of land at highly subsidized prices and pocket the difference between the acquired price and the market price. The prices of both the commercial and residential property, therefore, soared to levels beyond the affordability of a middle class family.

Sounds familiar? Well, these topical comments were made by Dr. Ishrat Hussain six years ago about the situation in Pakistan. Are things different across the border?

Beyond the shores of time,
in the valley of death
On the branch of a tree
nurtured by my tears
In the blue sky
lit by the stars
With a garland made of beads
of my broken dreams
I wait for my saviour
With my wings
of time clipped,
I wait for my saviour.