We should thank the Business Times for starting a series of write ups to look at some of the issues and how as responsible citizens of this country we could fight against the cancer of corruption.
I wish to restrict my article to some of the corrupt practices we always come across in our daily work and living situations and few examples from my previous work places.

Lets discuss them one by one ;
1) When we go to a shop and buy something do we always get the correct balance amount in change? Most of the time the standard excuse of the shopkeeper or his representative is that they do not have the change to give the balance and give various excuses.

Some salesmen even show a few coins of small change and say that that’s all they have, so that the customer will either go away without collecting the balance or take whatever small change given which is much less than the correct balance.

Some salesmen even go to the extent of even refusing to do the sale saying they cannot change the note for a small item. I am surprised at this attitude of shopkeepers which is not only a corrupt practice but also bad business ethics. If you visit a shop in the USA, UK or Japan you are rest assured that even if the change is in cents, pennies or yen not a cent or penny will be given less than what is due ! I don’t say that SriLanka being a poor developing country should emulate those developed countries but even such small corruption should not be tolerated by the public as there is no such thing as smaller evils when it comes to corruption and an example must be set by all business houses and shops.

2) How much bribery takes place in our country to ‘jump the queue’, when you are expected to wait and take your turn? It has almost become a practice to give ‘something’ to the person who manages the queue to get ahead of others. The worst part is one can notice these things happening even in religious places where some try to get ahead of others by bribing the ‘kapuwa’ or any influential person who is supposed to manage the queue of devotees. There is no need to mention about such corruption in hospitals, dispensaries and clinics, where the poor finds it difficult to pay ‘something’ to another person to get things done when these are legitimate things and not favours solicited.

3). How many innocent people get ‘duped’ by so many undesirable people who try to fleece people ignorant of the many procedures involved in ‘filling of forms, applications and sending notes/chits to get the attention of an officer to get some legitimate ‘job’ done from an office ? How many poor innocents lose their valuables including their money when trying to get a small job done in a Colombo office ?
4. Similarly corruption at petrol sheds also have increased where if you are not alert enough, you get cheated on the quantity of petrol/diesel pumped which is much less than the actual value paid. It’s a pity that mostly ladies get cheated as they do not alight from the vehicle to check the meter and the vehicle is asked to be parked covering the meter.

These are of course very common practices of corruption but when they are allowed to escalate and spread all over and those responsible for such corruption go scot free a bad example is set for others to eat into the system. No one speaks against such corrupt practices and they go unchecked.

The corrupt practices we hear about and come to know in our work places are numerous but only a few surface as the co – workers have to keep silent lest they get into ‘unnecessary trouble’. It is about time that government offices set up some machinery to invite the public to initiate action against corrupt practices in their offices and safeguard the civic conscious people from any resulting problems and ensuring top secrecy for information. We need a ‘The Right to Information’ law on the lines of what India has done.

Out of the corrupt practices I have observed in some state offices, most of them are as a result of ‘political appointees’ holding top posts who know very well that they are there only for a short while until their political masters are in power. So it’s a case of ‘making hay while the sun shines’.

There was a case of a Chairman of a responsible Corporation who was appointed as a reward for printing and pasting posters all over the island at an election. The irony of it is the Chairman was proud to say that openly adding that he has asked the ‘leader’ as to why he was not given well educated, qualifed and knowledgeable persons for his Board of Directors and the reply was: “It is to help him to do what he wants (recover his expenses, etc) and allow the other directors who worked hard to get him elected, also to survive.”

This Chairman did everything (to make money) violating tender procedures and importing a lot of unnecessary material to the country that the warehouses of the corporation were full and the items were not moving. The writer who was involved with the initial staff recruited to set up this corporation, which was operating very profitably and doing a great service to the people with the establishing of branches all over the country five years before, finally resigned and left the corporation in disgust and joined the private sector.

Another head of an organization comes to my mind who had been given a ‘political reward’ for supplying some ‘bullet proof’ material for a top politician to protect him from possible security threats. When such rewards are openly made and people with no knowledge of running such businesses are put in charge how can you expect to curb corruption and compete with the private sector?

This man was openly using his official office, vehicles and staff for his private business and was mostly engaged in running a car business on his own at the office with no interest in working to revive the loss-making corporation.

As a management Consultant who has worked in several government corporations and still visit and advise on corporate affairs, I believe that we should keep people who matter informed of these corrupt practices happening at higher levels and educate people to set new standards to fight against corruption.