Professional integrity and increased productivity must be incentivised with more bonuses, and less salaries
In India, to get preferential treatment anywhere and in any situation, one has to pay a price, which manifests in corruption. Corruption is everywhere — not a place to serve or be served without a bribe. Media reports suggest that corruption has not spared a single office, organisation or system. Even the judiciary is not clean, and fingers have been raised even at some Chief Justices. Just as the mind controls every organ in the body, the temples of justice likewise influence and encourage the various systems in society.
To curb or control any evil, there are two approaches: The preventive (the defensive) or the curative (the proactive or offensive). The preventive approach includes a system where no one needs to give or take bribe, while the curative approach would require the framing of anti-graft legislation and its appropriate implementation.
The latter approach is the one which most countries follow only to face problems related to the degree of implementation of the laws. Control over the implementation of the laws require other tools such as the Right to Information Act which has helped many countries effectively control graft in public places.
But India is still struggling to make legislation to curb corruption. The effectiveness and appropriateness of the preventive or curative approaches greatly depends on the country, its people, their culture and habits. In this author’s opinion, the preventive approach will be more suitable for India.
Corruption comes into the picture whenever some decision, like job appointments or award of contracts, is based on manual judgement. This is where one can not only prevent but even eliminate corruption — through a system in which the stated selection would be based on a quantitated number, such that the individual judgement factor (and hence, the corruption) is eliminated.
For example, for every candidate for a certain position, an index will be evaluated which will manifest the integrated effect of all the specified requirements of the said position/job. The selection will be done by a duly and appropriately programmed computer which will calculate the said index of every candidate from the candidate’s biodata and give a print-out of the order of merit list of all the candidates, and this way the manipulative human factor will be eliminated.
This is necessary in a country like India where merit is the least considered factor, reflected in the fact that it is still a third world developing nation, despite having qualified, hard working people in almost all disciplines.
Another manifestation of this phenomenon is evident both in cricket and diplomacy — where India is often defeated by much smaller powers. This is because the smaller countries are merit-minded, India is not.
A smaller but merit-oriented country selects its best available person for the job. This person may not even be as good as the top talent available in India but his actual Indian counterpart will be in all probability much weaker, for the latter hasn’t been chosen on merit but for his contacts or money power. Meanwhile, the meritorious in India are under-acknowledged or they migrate to other countries.
In short, if merit is adopted in India, then corruption will automatically go away or be prevented. Such a prevention of corruption strategy will be foolproof compared to the curative approach based on laws and their implementation. This is because in this corruption-infested country, law or rules will not be obeyed or will be suppressed through a bribe.
Therefore, in a corruption-laden India, the fine collection strategy will be a success only when the fine collector is paid a hefty bonus, which will ensure he is duty bound, honest and sincere. Similarly, judges can be given a bonus amount per case as an incentive for deciding each case on time. They may also be penalised if the case is not decided on time and with honesty.
All Government employees should be paid a bonus (a legalised bribe) for processing each case, and their salaries may be reduced appropriately. This will ensure efficiency and improve productivity.