Bribery in Business

The survey further reveals that a minimum of 13 clearances are required to start a new venture and the ordeal could last a minimum of 33 days. Obtaining a licence requires 20 clearances and could take 224 days if you remain on the fast track with an open purse. Registering property involves six clearances taking 62 days. Whatever new methods may be devised to check corruption, the Indian ingenuity would find ways of checkmating them. Still, the commission has recommended a unique company number to get all clearances at one go, hoping that this would drive out corruption. Sometimes, one wonders how people are able to get into business and make a success of it. It seems Indian businessman too is equally corrupt and soon learns how to loot and rob the consumer because, ultimately, the costs of bribe are passed on to the buyer and consumer.National Knowledge Commission survey's findings are startling. Sixty-one per cent-who started businesses between 2000-07-said they did not get a bank loan when they started. "There was a high perception among entrepreneurs that it is very difficult to get bank loans at the start-up stage though it becomes comparatively easy at the growth stage", the survey said. Naturally, once you are running an operation, the Bank officials will themselves advise you as to how to hoodwink and overcome the Banks and  bypass rules and  conditions for a loan at reasonable bribes because while documents may be signed on the table, bribes are paid under the table. Perhaps not. Now even this formality is done away with. Bribes are being taken and given in the open.The biggest motivating factor for becoming an entrepreneur, according to the survey, was the willingness to be independent of the family and a job. Ambition to become rich also plays a part. Strong motivation appears to be the vital factor in entering and surviving in business because the business world is no bed of roses. Bargaining and calculating risks are a necessarypart of an enterprise. On top of that, one has to do unlawful things for survival and success. There is a belief that behind every million made, there is a big crime and hundreds of novels have been written on this theme. Both private individual business and corporate business are rife with bribery. Corporate competition is often carried out as a war and bribery and corruption are resorted to because "everything is fair in love and war".Alcatel, one of the "biggest and cleanest corporate entities", finally got exposed in 2001 when Costa Rica prosecutors combed through the bank records and found Alcatel made $15 million in illicit payments to top politicians and bureaucrats and former President Miguel Angel Rodríguez was jailed for accepting bribe from Alcatel. 

In Europe, governments are finally cracking down on big business. Transparency International is fighting corruption effectively. The OECD agreement took effect in 1999 in 35 countries, imposing criminal penalties on companies found guilty of bribery. "The climate has definitely changed", says Susan Hawley, an anti-corruption research consultant. "The change in laws is beginning to bite."But India continues to be one of the most corrupt nations of the world.

Jan Lokpal Bill

The Jan Lokpal Bill (Citizen's ombudsman Bill) is a draft anti-corruption bill drawn up by prominent civil society activists seeking the appointment of a Jan Lokpal, an independent body  that would investigate corruption cases, complete the investigation within a year and envisages trial in the case getting over in the next one year. Drafted by Justice Santosh Hegde (former Supreme Court Judge and present Lokayukta of Karnataka), Prashant Bhushan (Supreme Court Lawyer) and Arvind Kejriwal (RTI activist), the draft Bill envisages a system where a corrupt person found guilty would go to jail within two years of the complaint being made and his ill-gotten wealth being confiscated. It also seeks power to the Jan Lokpal to prosecute politicians and bureaucrats without government permission. Retired IPS officer Kiran Bedi and other known people like Swami Agnivesh, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Anna Hazare and Mallika Sarabhai are also part of the movement, called India Against Corruption. Its website describes the movement as "an expression of collective anger of people of India against corruption. We have all come together to force/request/persuade/pressurize the Government to enact the Jan Lokpal Bill. We feel that if this Bill were enacted it would create an effective deterrence against corruption."Anna Hazare, anti-corruption crusader, began a fast-unto-death today, demanding that this bill, drafted by the civil society, be adopted. The website of the India Against Corruption movement calls the Lokpal Bill of the government an "eyewash" and has on it a critique of that government Bill. It also lists the difference between the Bills drafted by the government and civil society.

A look at the salient features of Jan Lokpal Bill:

1.     An institution called LOKPAL at the centre and LOKAYUKTA in each state will be set up 

2.     Like Supreme Court and Election Commission, they will be completely independent of the governments. No minister or bureaucrat will be 
able to influence their investigations.

3.     Cases against corrupt people will not linger on for years anymore: Investigations in any case will have to be completed in one year. Trial 
should be completed in next one year so that the corrupt politician, officer or judge is sent to jail within two years.

4.     The loss that a corrupt person caused to the government will be recovered at the time of conviction. 

5.     How will it help a common citizen: If any work of any citizen is not done in prescribed time in any government office, Lokpal will impose financial penalty on guilty officers, which will be given as compensation to the complainant.

6.     So, you could approach Lokpal if your ration card or passport or voter card is not being made or if police is not registering your case or any other work is not being done in prescribed time. Lokpal will have to get it done in a month's time. You could also report any case of corruption to Lokpal like ration being siphoned off, poor quality roads been constructed or panchayat funds being siphoned off. Lokpal will have to complete its investigations in a year, trial will be over in next one year and the guilty will go to jail within two years.

7.     But won't the government appoint corrupt and weak people as Lokpal members? That won't be possible because its members will be 
selected by judges, citizens and constitutional authorities and not by politicians, through a completely transparent and participatory process. 

8.     What if some officer in Lokpal becomes corrupt? The entire functioning of Lokpal/ Lokayukta will be completely transparent. Any complaint against any officer of Lokpal shall be investigated and the officer dismissed within two months.

9.     What will happen to existing anti-corruption agencies? CVC, departmental vigilance and anti-corruption branch of CBI will be merged into Lokpal. Lokpal will have complete powers and machinery to independently investigate and prosecute any officer, judge or politician. 

10.    It will be the duty of the Lokpal to provide protection to those who are being victimized for raising their voice against corruption.

ALL OF US LEARN FROM OUR FAILURES AS WELL AS SUCCESS

There is no finality about failure, said Jawaharlal Nehru. Perhaps, that is why learning from failure is easier than learning from success, as success often appears to be the last step of the ladder. Possibilities of life, however, are endless and there are worlds beyond the stars-which is literally true. What appears as success in one moment may turn out to be a failure or even worse in the next moment.We often do not know what is failure and what is success ultimately. 

 There are examples of people who became wealthy but renounced all their wealth achieved after a lifetime's effort. The kings like Bharthrihari gave up their kingdoms because of their failure in love. The Duke of Windsor abdicated the throne of England for marrying an American divorcee Miss Simpson.While we can see our failures clearly, success is prone to blind our vision. Yet, the time-world that we live in is a mixture of pain and pleasure, sorrow and delight, light and darkness, success and failure! Success as well as failure are parts of our life and experience. We gain from both and also lose from both. Failure dejects us, success delights us, but experience accretes them both. After a while, success also loses its shine just as failure loses its sting. An aware person learns from both successes and failures of life and begins to see life what it is. Most people try to achieve what they want. They either fail or succeed in getting what they want.In a difficult world trial and error become our way of solving life's problems. Yet there are escapists who avoid undertaking the trial because they are scared of meeting failure or committing the error. 

They, perhaps, consider making mistake as wrong and harmful but  the fact is that, for most of us, trial and error are both helpful and necessary.Error provides the feedback for building the ladder to success. Error pushes one to put together a new and better trial, leading through more errors and trials, hopefully, finding ultimately a workable and creative solution. To meet with an error is only a temporary, and often necessary part of the process that leads to success or well-earned achievement. No errors or failures, often, means no success either. This is more true in business and while handling an on-going project.According some business training programmes, an early partial success is not commended. In fact, early success in a long-term project is regarded as a premature outcome of good efforts that is likely to cause complaisance and slackening of effort to achieve the ultimate objective of the project. Early success might tempt one to get fixed on to what seemed to have worked  so quickly and easily and stop from looking up any further. Later, maybe, a competitor will learn from the slackened 'achiever' to further explore for larger possibilities and push on to find a much better solution that will push the earlier achiever out of the competition. Yet, there are many organisations who believe in what they call 'culture of perfection: a set of organisational beliefs that any failure is unacceptable'. Only a hundred per cent, untainted success will be acceptable. "To retain your reputation as an achiever, you must reach every goal and never, ever make a mistake that you can't hide or blame on someone else".But this is a flawed strategy because the stress and terror in such an organisation, at some point, become unbearable and lead to attrition. The ceaseless covering up of small blemishes, finger-pointing and shifting the blame result into rapid turnover, as people rise high, then fall abruptly from grace. 

Meanwhile, lying, cheating, falsifying of data, and hiding of problems goes on and swings and shakes the organisation from crisis to crisis and, ultimately, weakens it irreparably.Some ego-driven, 'experienced' achievers  forget that time and environment have changed and demand other kinds of inputs. A senior lecturer of ten years' standing was rejected and one with only one-year experience was selected. When the senior protested, selectors told him: "You too have only one year of experience-only repeated ten times. The selected lecturer has fresher and more relevant experience." Balance counts and a little failure may help preserve one's perspective on success. Finally, life is more than a count of failures and successes, as a humorist said: "try and try-only twice, the third time let some one else try" is yet another way of looking at life's struggle.