66% of businesses paid bribes to avail government services: Report
What's the story
A recent survey by LocalCircles has found that nearly 66% of businesses in India have turned to bribery to avail government services.
The study, which was conducted across 159 districts between May 22 and November 30, received over 18,000 responses.
It discovered that firms bribed officials for reasons ranging from qualifying as suppliers, securing orders, and collecting payments.
Widespread corruption
Bribery prevalent in multiple government departments
The report revealed that 75% of the bribes were paid to officials of different government departments. These included legal, metrology, food, drug, and health departments.
Other players were the GST department, pollution control bodies, municipal corporations, and power departments.
Among those who confessed to paying bribes, 54% said they were forced to do so, while 46% did so willingly to speed up processes.
Ineffective measures
Digitization efforts fail to curb corruption
The report further revealed only 16% of businesses managed to complete their dealings without paying a bribe. Meanwhile, 19% said they didn't feel the need to pay bribes at all.
Despite government efforts like digitization and CCTV installation in offices, corrupt practices continue behind closed doors.
"Though initiatives like the Government eProcurement marketplace are good steps to reduce corruption, there are still openings to engage in corruption for supplier qualification, bid manipulation, completion certificate and payments," the report said.
Expert opinion
Deloitte India calls for stronger anti-corruption measures
Aakash Sharma from Deloitte India weighed in on the matter, saying businesses tend to think minimal compliance is sufficient to evade scrutiny.
However, he cautioned that the rising corruption cases demand stronger anti-corruption measures in organizations.
"While this approach may have been sufficient in the past, recent upward trends in corruption cases...require organizations to relook at their compliance framework and establish a robust anti-corruption program," Sharma told PTI.