Good Idea, Chap: The Legality of Bribes

 To begin with, so that any future confusion is avoided, I would like to point out that the ramblings below would refer to the legality of briBes and NOT briDes.

Whilst browsing the World Wide Web last night, I stumbled across a very intriguing discussion that, as a Bulgarian, I could relate to.

The subject matter was the perverse and unbelievable level of corruption in India. Skimming through the barrage of angry posts and fiery language, a single post stood out as being quite composed and straight- to- the point- like me (insert NOT joke here).

It introduced an utterly baffling to the participants idea-

Make Giving Bribes Legal.

The person who referred to the above was, of course, ridiculed by small- minded people at first and made fun of in the most unimaginative ways possible (i.e. ‘yo mamma is so…jokes and suchlike’).

The innovative idea that the chap referred to was recently re- introduced (as it is not ‘new’ as such) in a recent paper by India’s Chief Economic Adviser, Professor Kaushik Basu.

Prof. Basu refers to what he calls ‘harassment bribes’; namely, bribes that are paid to officials to do their actual job. A simple example of that would be tax officials demanding bribes from laymen to provide them with their tax refunds, something that everyone is legally entitled to without having to pay anyone anything.

So what’s the big deal and how would that work?

Well, first and foremost, both giving and accepting a bribe is currently illegal. This means that upon giving and accepting the bribe both sides have an incentive to keep quiet unless they find prison life a particular nice and preferable arrangement.

Now let us assume that the giving bit becomes legal. This would simply mean that, upon handing the bribe, the ‘giver’ would have the incentive to tell on the ‘receiver’ (oh, how wrong that sounds…).

The ‘giver’ will then get his money back and the ‘receiver’ will be put to justice.

In theory, the above- mentioned is hunky- dory, tip- top and spot- on.

There are, however, some issues with it. The most compelling one seems to be that, in order to tell on a ‘big shot’, you would have to accumulate enough evidence and funds to get you through the inevitable litigation which would follow (i.e. harassment, libel, etc).

This problem could, though, easily be overcome if the policy was backed by government funding in cases where exposing the ‘receiver’ would be in the public interest.

Thus, I remain a firm supporter of Prof. Basu’s proposal and truly believe that, if implemented properly and backed by the government, the policy might lead to ground- breaking changes in our lives.

I mean, just think how invigorating it would be for you to give a bribe to someone knowing that he would go

To Hell With It!

P.S. For a more detailed discussion on Prof. Basu’s paper, please visit

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/soutikbiswas/2011/04/should_bribe_giving_be_legalised.html