ipaidabribe.com is Janaagraha's unique initiative to tackle corruption by harnessing the collective energy of citizens. You can report on the nature, number, pattern, types, location, frequency and values of actual corrupt acts on this website. Your reports will, perhaps for the first time, provide a snapshot of bribes occurring across your city. We will use them to argue for improving governance systems and procedures, tightening law enforcement and regulation and thereby reduce the scope for corruption in obtaining services from the government. We invite you to register any recent or old bribes you have paid. Please tell us if you resisted a demand for a bribe, or did not have to pay a bribe, because of a new procedure or an honest official who helped you. We do not ask for your name or phone details, so feel free to report on the formats provided.
Corruption is certainly rampant in our country. Blaming it on our value systems is a poor alibi with no substance in it. We do not believe that Indians are inherently corrupt; our value systems are as good or as bad as anybody else's. Corruption is not a social trend that arises out of an erosion of value systems; it is born out of systems failure. Corruption flourishes because we have poorly designed governance systems in the country.
People are not born corrupt. Corruption is a crime of calculation, not of passion. Large numbers drift into corruption if risks are low, penalties are mild and rewards great; they will move out if the system is tightened. Therefore, the broad solution is to make the calculation risky for the corrupt.
The solution to cure corruption permanently is to stop looking at it from a moral perspective, but from an economic perspective. Corruption follows a mathematical formula, C=M+D–A. Corruption equals Monopoly plus Discretion, minus Accountability. Wherever these conditions are there, be it the public or private sector, corruption tends to happen.
So we have to change systems based on this formula, to reduce corruption. Let us give you some examples:
The ipaidabribe.com idea has emerged and evolved over time. It commenced with a discussion between co-founders of Janaagraha, Swati and Ramesh Ramanathan and Mr. Sridar Iyengar, a board member of Janaagraha's advisory board a couple of years back regarding the pernicious effect of corruption on destroying city life and disempowering citizens. The original idea was that the website could become a simple means of tracking the market price of corruption - a kind of market price prediction mechanism. Of course, the original idea had more of tongue in cheek and cynicism propelling it. In fact, two years back, a small experimental website was put up to test the idea. How- ever the afterthought was that such an effort was indeed a very powerful one. Over time, we worked on the idea extensively and added a lot more features. We decided that the website has to be a multifaceted site, providing a variety of services to people. We launched the new completely rede- signed website on Aug 15, 2010, India's Independence day.
Janaagraha is a non-profit that works for improving the quality of citizenship and infrastructure and services in India's cities. IPaidABribe.com is an initiative to tackle corruption by tapping into the collective energy of citizens, almost every one of whom is either a victim, perpetrator or beneficiary, or a combination of these. Janaagraha has a very rigorous system of aligning its institutional objectives with the performance of its programmes. Each institutional objective is further aligned with several strategic themes. Ipab aligns with Janaagraha's goal of making a measurable difference in the quality of Citizenship in cities. It does this by adopting the strategy of empowering citizens using a net-plus- roots approach – we use a net based platform for recording the grassroots experiences of citizens. Through this approach, ipaidabribe.com aligns completely with Janaagraha's key thrust of increasing the number of citizen change agents in the city. We believe that every citizen who reports a story on our website about paying a bribe, is angry enough to begin to resist it. Of course, it goes without saying that somebody who has resisted paying a bribe and reported the story, is already very much on the path of being a citizen change agent.
IPaidABribe.com is a citizen driven mechanism for tracking bribe payment activity, as also instances of when people resisted bribe payments or did not have to pay bribes because of good government systems or good people within the government systems. Citizens' reports on the nature, number, pattern, types, locations and frequency of actual corrupt acts and values of bribes will add up to a valuable knowledge bank that will contribute to a reduction in bribe payments.
By providing a place for citizens to report, as well as by analyzing the information, ipaidabribe.com aims to:
Providing space to people to speak about corruption is only one facet of the service provided. The larger aim is to use the data to make detailed recommendations on how government can eliminate the avenues of corruption. As our data bank grows, we have begun to put in the public domain suggestions on cleaning up the system in respect of specific systems, such as the RTOs office or the sub-registrar's office. Once we get people's views on these, we will begin to take these up with the government and pressurize them to change procedures. We are also willing to work hand in hand with the government, in order to design systems, write new regulations and help design similar such reforms.
Except for using the data that we receive for further analysis, we will not take the complaints and stories forward. On the basis of the analysis, we want to engage positively with any arm of the government to improve services and reduce the possibility of corruption. Government is full of good people, except that nobody knows about them and gives them a chance to make a difference!
No, we do not intend to invoke the courts.
If people want to prosecute a bribe taker, they can go to the vigilance authorities and the Lokayukta. The task of tackling corruption is a peoples' effort, it cannot be left to a few Robin Hoods, including our website. We are a channeliser of people's energies. It is only the collective energy of people that can turn the tables on the corrupt ipaidabribe.com
There are three reasons why citizens must fight corruption:
First, corruption is the most important cause of the terribly bad public services that we endure. The fact that we do not get proper electricity or water supply, our properties have no protection, our streets are not safe, our police is so inefficient, our courts are slow, our buses and autos don't run, our roads are terrible, can be traced back to corruption as the main reason. These public services are our entitlements. These are not favours dispensed from above.
Second, corruption has a huge economic cost. First, where there is corruption, it makes legitimate transactions difficult. Second, it perpetuates misgovernance, by destroying any incentive for the government to reduce red tape. Slow and convoluted processes are a brake on economic growth. If we combat corruption, our life will become a lot easier and prosperity will grow.
Third, corruption erodes legitimate values, because it unjustifiably enriches people who do not add any economic value to the system. This sends the wrong message to people, that anything goes and that the ends justify the means, however illegal. This weakens civilized society. Corruption thus creates a system where distrust pervades our everyday life; where we are suspicious of our government and it is suspicious of us in turn. And of course, we distrust each other!
In the long term, corruption causes serious damage to the governance of the country and thus affects everybody, including the person who thinks he did a smart thing by paying a bribe. Ultimately, nobody in the country can escape from the damage that corruption causes. Misgovernance touches all of us.
Yet, many of us wish it away, look the other way, or even justify it, saying that it is inevitable and unavoidable. Some even go to the extent of saying that nothing should be done about it; that it's a form of gift giving consistent with local social mores and given the dysfunctional modes of service delivery, that it is economically efficient.
There are 7 common heard excuses for accepting & condoning corruption:
None of these excuses hold any water. Corruption causes serious damage to the governance of the country. Nobody in the country can escape from the damage that corruption causes. Anybody who justifies corruption has only to look around at how dysfunctional most of our public services are. The fact that we do not get proper electricity or water supply, our properties have no protection, our streets are not safe, our police is so inefficient, our courts are slow, our buses and autos don't run, our roads are terrible, can be traced back to corruption as the main reason. These public services are our entitlements. These are not favours dispensed from above.
There is also no need to be pessimistic about corruption. Countries have cleaned up very dramati- cally. It has happened in Hong Kong and Bolivia, and the process by which it has been done has been documented. We in India can do it, if we work together as a team. If corrupt people form teams, why can't honest people also team up? Ipaidabribe.com is aiming to get citizens as a group to become intolerant of corruption. We have to overcome the fear factor. We have to realize we are not alone and build a sense of community, of standing up for each other.
Activism, whether on the streets or online, has to have substance and be sustained. Ranting, or venting anger is not enough. Protests, such as processions, can momentarily draw attention, but little else. The key is to work on process reform and then pressurize the government to accept and implement specific suggestions to reduce corruption. Providing a forum for citizens to report their experiences is only the beginning of a long journey. We aim to achieve a measurable increase in the number of people who resist corruption, as also in the number of processes within government that we have been able to change for the better. That is what ipaidabribe.com measures as success.
We do not to give names of people, for the following reasons:
All the complaints and stories on the website are in the public domain. They are there for everyone to see. Any positive minded government servant or politician can see these reports and surely, if they are motivated enough, they can make positive changes happen. In addition, we are also using the data for further analysis, so that everybody sees the dimension of the problem in totality. On the basis of the analysis, we want to engage positively with any arm of the government to improve services and reduce the possibility of corruption. Government has many good people working within it, except that nobody knows about them and gives them a chance to make a difference!
It is very difficult to estimate at this point in time. We can do a sample survey, but right now, all that we have are the reports. No, we do not under-report 'clean' transactions, because we do not interfere in the process of reporting of stories. We continued to maintain anonymity in the case of clean transactions for three reasons:
First, we reckoned that if we are mainly concerned with the transaction details so that we can take a systemic approach with regard to the solution, then names would be a distraction, because again the focus would be on the individuals concerned.
Second, with respect to the 'clean' transaction of 'I didn't pay a bribe', the mentioning of names could lead to other complications, such as cases of slander or defamation.
Third, as regards the 'I didn't have to pay a bribe' reports, please remember that we have no way of checking the veracity of reports, and therefore we do not want to give any kind of incentive for both, negative or praiseworthy stories. With no incentive either way, people are more likely to say the truth.
By not allowing names to be published, we have eliminated any incentive for any individual to make a false or malicious complaint. Since nobody will gain anything by reporting a false complaint on our site because we do not act on complaints, we expect that the stories on the site are true.
Here are some simple tips on how to avoid a bribe taking situation:
Based upon more than 1500 'I didn't pay a bribe' experiences of citizens reported on the site, we have prepared the ten commandments of avoiding corruption, which is a powerful and effective citizen's advisory.
We are now mostly on the internet, where the news has traveled far and wide and we are getting hits. We hope to come out with many public campaigns in future. But the most important thing is that we do not want to confront the government, without making purposive and constructive suggestions. We want to work with the government. There are many ideas floating around on how we do this.
A legal impact can be seen only if legal complaints increase and prosecutions happen. In the short term, we know we cannot have an impact, so that is not what we are aiming for, at least in the immediate future. Right now, we are engaging in creating a groundswell against corruption, both working with the government to reduce red tape as also with citizens to build up their courage and helping them to overcome corruption. We believe that corruption has grown this big only because as citizens, we have tolerated it. If we actively oppose it and there are enough of us, the government has to buckle down and tackle the problem effectively. To do that, it is also important that we build bridges with and support the actions of honest officials within the government, who often look the other way, because they are dispirited and become cynical.
You can file a complaint under the prevention of corruption act. If a bribe has been demanded from you and you have not yet paid, please go to the Lokayukta or the Vigilance authority in your state (if there is no institution of Lokayukta) and collaborate in setting up a trap.
If you have been in a situation where you have been forced to pay bribe, you have the protection of the law on your side. Section 24 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 states that a statement by the bribe giver does not subject him to prosecution. It says:
'Notwithstanding anything contained in any law for the time being in force, a statement made by a person in any proceeding against a public servant for an offence under sections 7 to 11 1or under 23 section 13 or section 15 , that he offered or agreed to offer any gratification (other than legal remu- neration) or any valuable thing to the public servant, shall not subject such person to a prosecution 4 under section 12 .'
However, the wheels of justice move slowly in India, whether they relate to corruption or otherwise. So patience is required when prosecuting a corrupt officer.
1 Section 7: Public servant taking gratification other than legal remuneration in respect of an official act; Section 8: Taking gratification, in order, by corrupt or illegal means, to influence public servant; Section 9: Taking gratification, for exercise of personal influence with public servant; Section 10: Punishment for abetment by public servant of offences defined in section 8 or 9.
2 Section 13: Criminal misconduct by a public servant
3 Section 15: Punishment for attempt
4 Section 12: Punishment for abetment of offences defined in section 7 or 11
The number can vary, but we get a total of about 25 to 50 reports in our 'I paid a bribe', 'I didn't pay a bribe' and 'I didn't have to pay a bribe' sections every day. There are days where reports have spurted; this typically happens after we have featured in the press! Apart from these reports, we get about 20 questions on the Ask Raghu column every day. In addition, there are about 20 to 50 reports and comments logged in on the various forums and the administrator's blog.
There are three ways of looking at this.
First, the frequency of reports. Some instances of corruption are quite frequent, say for instance, those by the RTO's office, or by traffic policemen, but the payments are less.
Second, one could look at the size of the bribe paid. We find that land related situations are the ones where heavy bribes are paid.
Third, one could look at the inter-se proportion of 'I paid a bribe', 'I didn't pay a bribe' and 'I didn't have to pay a bribe' reports, to analyse the persistence of corruption. For example, we find that people are more likely not to pay bribes with respect to driving licences, as compared to registration of land.
IPAB displays the bribe related reports in two ways. First, the raw report, as provided by the individual logging in, can be seen under the headings ' I paid a bribe', 'I didn't pay a bribe' and 'I didn't have to pay a bribe'. We have also introduced analytics on the site. If you go to the 'bribe patterns' button, these analytics can be seen. We provide city wise and transaction wise data on the numbers of bribes paid, the amounts paid and averages.
Apart from these, we undertake more detailed department and transaction wise analysis of corrup- tion. The idea is to bring out insightful reports for the general public as well as for the government, showing the patterns of corruption and giving suggestions as to the process changes that must be brought about to reduce the opportunities for corruption. These reports, termed 'Janamahithi' (Jana= people, Mahithi = information) also contain information on how citizens can avoid paying bribes by taking some simple precautions, doing their homework and paperwork in advance and adopting certain styles of behavior.
Our Janamahithi report on motor vehicles has been released. The next one on registration related corruption is due to be released shortly. We have formally submitted both these reports to the government, for the purpose of taking action to make the necessary process changes and keep citizens informed about the progress made by the government.
In the longer term, we want to get into detailed research into corruption related matters. In India, we are very deficient in good quality research on corruption. We need to do this, so that we can define the problem fully, which is half the way to finding permanent solutions.
Well, the percentages are there for all to see and they are an interesting starting point. In the absence of any previous data source, they give an interesting insight into the likely percentage of people who pay bribes and who resist them, and who do not need to pay bribes because of good officials. More than the absolute values, what would be interesting to note is whether they change over time. Could that signal a change in citizen behavior? Seen from that angle, two things are interesting to note. The inter-se percentage between the three categories has remained more or less the same since the site was launched. However, from 3 March to date, there has been a 1.4 percent increase in the 'I didn't pay a bribe' stories. This gain has been made at the expense largely of the 'paid a bribe' cases. No conclusions can be drawn yet from this data, but it is an interesting observation.
We didn't feel that there were any risks or challenges to the programme. We only saw opportunities. In fact, the only challenge was to get the design of the website right.
If you are worried about how such people's initiative will pan out in future, then any obstacle can be construed as a challenge. It is possible to paint a doomsday scenario about initiatives such as this. You might begin to wonder whether people might make false reports, for instance. But then, you also wonder as to what might be the incentive for them to report false stories! If one proceeds on the basic presumption of trusting people to do the right thing, then there are no risks, really.
The key thing is to ensure that such approaches do not deteriorate into becoming forums for purpose- less rants and name calling. It is important not to become stridently vocal against any particular group of people. The focus must be on reform of systems, not on corrupt individuals, because if systems are streamlined, corrupt individuals will fade away.
No we have not felt any pressure. No government department has been hostile to us, but these are early days. On the other hand, the government has been positive. We have been invited by the Central Vigilance Commission to make presentations at the national level on the initiative and helped us to spread awareness about the website and the potential it has to reduce corruption. Departments such as the Transport Department in Karnataka State have provided us the platform to address their officials too.
Moreover, since all the complaints and stories on the website are in the public domain. They are there for everyone to see. Any positive minded government servant or politician can see these reports and surely, if they are motivated enough, they can make positive changes happen. In addition, we are also using the data for further analysis, so that everybody sees the dimension of the problem in totality. Our stand is that we want to engage positively with any arm of the government to improve services and reduce the possibility of corruption. We are willing to work hand in hand with the government, in order to design systems, write new regulations and help design similar such reforms. Since the Government has many good people working within it, the reaction that we have received has been positive.
In India, we are witnessing a phenomenon by which the net has become a rallying point for mass movements against corruption. Ipaidabribe.com has been in the forefront of this phenomenon, because we provide space for citizens to report their stories and experiences regarding corruption. However, currently with our net presence alone, we do realize that we can only touch people who have access to the net, who are in a minority. However, this number is likely to grow rapidly in India and therefore, our influence is likely to spread even more.
Currently with our net presence alone, we do realize that we touch people who have access to the net, who are in a minority. However, this number is likely to grow rapidly. We are working on developing a mobile interface for enabling people to report their stories, including in Indian languages too.
Crowdsourcing has been adopted as a strategy to build up huge databases, but not so far for assess- ing the quality of government services. The more hits we get, the greater the influence of the site on governance and policy. As of today, the net is still a minor influence on the government. The reason is that because of the hierarchical government personnel system, higher jobs are occupied by middle aged people who are not net savvy. This will not sustain for long. As younger people, who are more conversant with the net interact in larger numbers with the government, they will demand services over the net, as also report and give their feedback on the government over it. Both politicians and officials cannot ignore the influence the net will have on democracy in the coming years. Ipaidabribe.com might just be the trendsetter for more crowdsourcing initiatives on governance.
The biggest challenge for IPaidABribe.com is to respond to the demands of the public, to provide support and information quickly. As this is a web based initiative, it is important that we respond to people very fast. For this purpose, one needs to collect data from the government, analyse govern- ment procedures and present the findings in a simple manner. At any given time, we are undertak- ing research on at least two to three important government procedures or departments.
As of now (Aug 2016), 13,654,517 people have visited our site. Hits have been recorded from 1071 cities across India. There have been 96200 bribe related reports posted by visitors so far.
This was a serious concern for us when we launched the site. We did two things: exhorted people not to write their names or the names of those that they had paid bribes to; put in place a software that would blank out the names. We also have a moderator whose job is to delete any reports that are defamatory, or inflammatory. In these last 22 months since we launched, we find that reporting to slander is a rare incident, if at all
Our intent is to change the system that breeds corruption, rather than indict the individuals within the system. Besides, you change the individuals, the threat of corruption remains. But change the system and you root out corruption permanently.
The role that non-government bodies play is multi-fold since corruption is such a vast and hydra-headed monster - from procurement processes in public projects, to extraction of precious natural resources, to public services, and favoritism / nepotism towards private enterprise – these are all rife with corruption as instruments for wealth and/or power.
Just as governments introduce critical vigilance bodies, integrity offices, ethics departments, etc to curb corruption, non–government bodies play an equally important role in providing independent platforms to amplify the voice and experience of citizens with government, and catalyze change.
Importantly, the process re-engineering work in our state based on the impact of the reports by citizens, has already begun – with champions emerging from within the system itself! The Transport Commissioner in Bangalore called to communicate his embarrassment at finding his department having the highest instances of bribe taking in Bangalore. We worked with him and his senior management team to re-engineer the process flow and reduce the loopholes for rent seeking in the issuance of drivers' licenses, so that 2 key steps that in the past had a fair amount of subjective discretion in them, were converted to automated tests.
As another example, the department for land registration used to have designated offices where one had to go to register the purchase and sale of land – depending on where in the city the particular land parcel was, one had to go to a specific Sub Registrar's Office. With the ipaidabribe.com data, it was evident that there was a flourishing market for bribes in land transactions, reflecting admirably the laws of supply and demand! Those Sub Registrar offices that were on the periphery of the city, where much of the new growth occurs, were seeing thegreatest rates of bribes, whereas those Sub Registrar Offices which were in the heart of the city, where land transactions are less frequent, were seeing fewer touts and lower rates. So we made a proposal to the Department of Stamps and Registration – given that all land transactions had been converted to electronic records, why not make them 'AnywhereRegistration'? That is, one could go to any Sub Registrar office in the city to register one's land transaction. It took several months of advocacy, but we got it – and rates for land transactions have come down since then!
Seeing these ideas taking root, the Chief Secretary of the state – the highest ranking bureaucrat - has since sought our support to do more. Last month, we saw ipaidabribe posters going up in key government departments all over the city of Bangalore, asking people to send a text message to us if they had to pay a bribe for a government service, or if they didn't have to pay a bribe. We thought there would be a deluge of messages, until we discovered just last week that the government offices were putting up the posters at a height of 15 feet, barely visible unless you are superman! So clearly, even when we think we have wrested a victory, setbacks lurk just around the corner, or above one's head.
We have legal counsel as and when we need it – both pro-bono provided by great good-will, and paid for services. On funding, as with any other non-profit, we raise our money for our annual budgets, get in-kind contribution. The key is to put targets and measurements for the impact you wish, and then show you can deliver.
