Decency 101

E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Decency 101
Sunday, 09 21, 2008

There was once a deputy minister – who headed a bids and awards committee for the purchase of vessels needed to patrol the archipelagic waters of her country – who found herself facing this offer: US$1 million, in exchange for her signature on a committee resolution disqualifying the best bidder on a flimsy technical ground, thereby awarding the contract to another who had tendered a bid of $7 million more than the lowest bid. The rest of the committee members had been approached and, after having been promised substantial manifestations of gratitude, were in consensus that it would be no breach of the law if the contract went to the other bidder. All that was needed was the deputy minister’s signature.

The deputy minister turned down the bribe. This personal decency set her off a pariah in a government run by bureaucrats whose work ethic seemed unerringly guided by the answer to the question, “What’s in it for me?”

And because graft had to find its own venal way, her putative corruptor facilitated the deputy minister’s replacement with somebody who was all too willing to be absorbed into the maze of bureaucratic movers who knew how to shake down the money tree.

With the deputy minister out of the way, financial inducement cut through the red tape, and made a happy person out of everyone else involved in the deal.

In a redeeming postscript to this story, those who had a hand in the awarding of the contract are now facing court suits for corruption. In the meantime, two of those charged lost their families and homes to fire; one is sick of cancer, while still another literally lost his golfing arm, that could only be described as grim poetic justice. Another is now a fugitive, awaiting extradition for a yet separate corruption offense.

The deputy minister is still working in her own small way to combat the evil that scourges government everywhere – corruption.

For all it is worth, one takes little joy in the moral of the story: that the law catch up with the corrupt; while those who resist the easy money will somehow get their just reward, the least of which is a clear conscience.

The United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) minces no words in defining bribery, thus: (a) The promise, offering or giving, directly or indirectly, of an undue advantage to any person who directs or works, in any capacity, for the person himself or for another person, in order that he, in breach of his duties, act or refrain from acting; and (b) The solicitation or acceptance, directly or indirectly, of an undue advantage by any person who directs or works, in any capacity, for the person himself or for another person, in order that he, in breach of his duties, act or refrain from acting.

In certain countries where the “small gift,” the lagniappe and the baksheesh are considered part of the “normal, civilized way of conducting transactions,” there will always be the extended palm, ready to receive the token of a generosity that conveniently masks off the insidious venality. The suborner and the suborned have not embarrassed each other, and this shared guilt becomes a self-enforcing bond that seal subsequent deals.

The bribe giver is emboldened only by the weakness of the person who would willingly accept the inducement. That weakness can be remedied only by a firm resolve on the part of the latter to do the right thing. The climate under which the right thing could be done, that is, to reject the offer, can be created only by the person who is the object of the offer. This decision rests only between himself and his conscience.

Bribes are useless and ineffective if there are no takers. However conducive a culture could get that it breeds an atmosphere of extortion and bribery, all that a self-respecting man has to do is to say no. His honesty and sense of decency are his shields.

Businessmen could be unforgiving aggressors to break down the defenses of one’s sense of decency and honesty. Their overriding goal is to get the deal done, never mind if in the process they have to convince themselves – and their victims as well – that a little palm-greasing here and a small payola there never hurt anybody. Profit is the all-consuming desire, and all scruples be damned. But then, again, corruption thrives only where there is an atmosphere of decadence and turpitude. The businessman will always try, but can he succeed if nobody will entertain him, if no one will make it easy for him to gain undue advantage?

Bribe giving is both a weakness and a strength of those who cannot stand on their own. Extortion, on the other hand, is the easy but unconscionable conduct of those who are uneasy with the realization that which they have is all that they will ever need. The bribe giver preys on the vulnerability of the extortionist, and the extortionist takes advantage of the desperate need of the bribe giver to control results. In a moral and upright climate, however, one is useless without the other.

The UNCAC and local anti-corruption laws are not enough to deter the bribe givers and the bribe takers, who will always find a way to get around the penalties that await them. If we must succeed in eradicating corruption, we need to summon all the strength of our will to resist the temptation, to muster the courage to expose it. We need to cloak ourselves with the firm determination to put the bribe giver at the mercy of the law that he deigned to scoff at.

We need to be able to say to ourselves: “I do not want anyone to induce me to commit a wrong.” Decency is all we need.



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