EKIP– Expert Club for Economics and Politics A Different Opinion
Author: Alexander Mihaylov
Let's imagine for a moment that I am a senior civil servant, in some state agency I am the deputy assistant director. My position puts me in a position where I have access to the levers of power through which I can do someone a favor, so that some interaction with the relevant agency or other institutions goes more smoothly, or is bypassed altogether. I know a chalam, so to speak, a very nice Bulgarian word, by which this can happen. However, I am a particularly principled person, I would not abuse my position. On the contrary, I regularly report attempts to be bribed. Unless it is a very close relative, friend, or acquaintance, for example, a second cousin of the landlord's sister, the father of the child who is in the same group as mine in kindergarten, to whom I say "I will pretend that I did not hear you, and I hope it does not happen again."
What does it mean to be exposed to "corruption pressure"?
I am exposed to corruption pressure. A very interesting expression. From the moment I took up such a position, I have been constantly exposed to corruption pressure, most regularly they come looking for me for small favors, and I either report it, or in particularly extreme cases I change the subject. However, this pressure is constant, and if my principles are as stable as the Grand Canyon, then the constant corruption pressure is like the Colorado River for them.
Until at some point it happens that I find myself in a difficult situation, for example, the group in the child's kindergarten is going on a trip to Bali, or his birthday is coming up, and I want to make him happy with some trinket, for example, the latest iPhone model, to play with something there, and it's only the fifth of the month, there are 10 days until the advance, and a whole 25 until salary, and on the first of the month I make my first payment on the yacht loan and I'm a little in the red, and I'm thinking about whether I shouldn't do this small favor for that gentleman who came into my office today.
Why not, it's some trifle, and he just gives me a gift. This is an isolated case, I continue to be principled and do my job conscientiously, delicately deflect attempts to be bribed, even occasionally give a signal of a bribe a month. However, the next time comes when I'm in a difficult situation, and I again betray my principles for some trifle.
What leads to corrupt practices?
I described the life of a high-ranking civil servant working in stressful conditions and under constant corruption pressure. Citizens resort to attempts to bribe civil servants, bodies, or institutions when we want them to do their job in our favor, or to blink while we perform some hand tricks to make some unfavorable circumstances disappear, like the alcohol in our blood when we are caught driving at 200 km/h, without headlights at night, without a license, and in a car that is so malfunctioning that it cannot even start.
Or when we want the cumbersome bureaucratic apparatus to move faster than usual, especially for us, for example when we don't have time to wait for a permit to be issued to us for an activity with a high level of public risk, and to go through 10 thousand inspections, and to have to hire inspectors so that their eyes can squint and they don't notice some little things. Because we have to act expeditiously, we have concluded a very profitable deal with some guys who, because they are from a country against which sanctions have been imposed and they can hardly find anyone else to do their job, are willing to pay a very high price, and we don't care so much where their money comes from. Citizens subject institutions to corruption pressure when we want things to happen the other, easier way.
We can't solve the problem of corruption with more state.
It is precisely because of the above that it can be expected that the problem of corruption in our country will deepen, and the state will create new and new anti-corruption bodies to fight it. More and more corruption and more and more anti-corruption bodies, until we become the most corrupt country in the EU (which we already are) with the most anti-corruption bodies. And this will be the case until we think about what the cause-and-effect relationship actually is here. An anti-corruption body is an obvious target for corruption and it would be exposed to the greatest possible corruption pressure to such an extent that the existence of state anti-corruption bodies would be meaningless. It's like bees campaigning against the abuse of honey.
If we want to fight corruption at the highest, lowest, and in general all levels of government, there should be not more anti-corruption bodies, but fewer state institutions in general. The state should shrink in size and administrative-bureaucratic burden for citizens, and state officials should not be so empowered that they can do us small and not so small favors in exchange for small gifts. Or they should hint to us that if they do not receive some small gift, they can do their job and bring the full weight of the law on us, to repress us through inspections, investigations, seizures. If the state official is not in a position and does not have the mechanisms to tap us on the shoulder, the point of trying to bribe him disappears, we simply would not get anything in return. Therefore, the way to fight corruption is not more, but less state.
