- I Paid A Bribe
- 14 years ago
- 257 views
When even your lawyer advises you to pay...
- Municipal Services
- Trade License
- Paid INR 5,000
I am running a small office in Bandra and have, so far, never paid any bribes. Today, two BMC officers walked in and asked my office manager to produce certain documents, like attendance register book (very contemporary in the age of electronic time recording) and Shop Incorporation Certificate. I have to admit: both were faulty. But instead of giving us some time to sort this out, they flatly gave us two options: File a case against me or pay 10.000 INR. Being a (naive) foreigner I was honstely considering to have the case filed. But they also explained to me that if I would opt for court, they would make sure they would keep me on my toes and unnecessarily make me run around .
What really shocked me was the impudence of the officers. They were shamelessly laughing and cracking jokes, very comfortable in their demands and when my officemanager enquired about the correct way of keeping the requested documents they bluntly told her:
"No matter how well you keep it - next time we'll remove something or find another reason why you'll have to pay."
They accommodatingly handed over their official visiting card, nicely pointed out their extension number and gave us a day 'to think about our preferred option'.
I asked many of my friends what to do. All of them told me: Pay. I asked the other business owners in the building: They apologised for my inconvenience and then advised that I pay.
I finally asked my lawyer: he gave me a lecture about my duties as an employer and then told me - to pay.
When my office manager called the officers the next day she managed to haggle them down to 5000 INR. They let her know that they wished to have the bribe to be delivered to their office premises ('we only come once')as they didn't want to waste more time on us. When asking for directions, they replied: "It's very near, madam, right next to the Bandra police station."