No sting operation this

RTI exposes corruption in Bangalore City Corporation (ibnlive) N Vikramsimha and Veera Belur, Right To Information (RTI) activists and trustees of the RTI Study Centre, pour over documents from the Bangalore City Corporation to find out where computers worth Rs 3.4 crore purchased in 2005 are. “Physically, the computers are not in existence. The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) has old computers, which were bought much earlier. Corporation may have 120 divisional offices but they've bought 1,750 pay roll packages, which is ridiculous,” says Vikramsimha. The computers being used at the corporation are easily eight years old. And it has to make do with the ageing machines despite the internal audit report of the corporation mentioning the non-delivery of the systems that were purchased. And it is this report that the RTI is using to press for a Lokayukta enquiry. Also Read: ‘BBMP violated norms in computer purchase’(Hindu) the BBMP had purchased computers worth Rs. 3.39 crore without bringing it to the notice of the BBMP Expert Committee. No entries were made in the stock register in this regard, they alleged. World Bank funds reserved for development work were misused. The Chief Auditor of BBMP had, in his report in 2006, brought the malpractices to the notice of then BBMP Commissioner. But no action was taken, they alleged. The BBMP was now trying to cover up malpractices by taking steps that had to be followed prior to purchase, they said.

Stopping policemen from bribing is very difficult. I see lot of police do not doing any other duty other than waiting to catch hold of someone and do negotiation with him to get the bribe. How can this be stopped?

Shastri is out of town, so I am posting his enforcement idea that he blogged here.

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The solution is as simple as it sounds. Just privatize the traffic regulation.
How it works is, I - being a private contractor- take up the ‘rights’ to monitor certain area, say M.G road (the same way BMP used to auctions parking lots). I pay the government certain money for giving me the right. Then the government tells me “see, you can go catch and fine all the people out their risking their and others lives, but you can not fine anyone without first having a photo/video of them violating the rule”. Then I invest some more money to hire people, equipment (traffic cameras, speed radars etc). Then I go install the infrastructure on MG road and I will record on my camera every guy who crossed the yellow line or jumped the signal or the like. I catch that guy at the next junction, and tell him ‘Dude, we have you on the tape crossing the yellow line. That would be 2000 Rs fine. Will that be fine?’.
Now do you see how it works? The government is happy because it gets more revenue than before. The contractor is happy because he makes more money than he invested, the police are happy because now they can concentrate on really important things like channeling traffic to help VIPs go to a dinner party, the average commuter is happy because the traffic is smoother and he know he cant be implicated without genuine evidence. The only person who feels sad is may be the guy who paid those 2000 Rs. But 4 out of 5 is still a good score.
What do you think?

City.Zen and Naveen, thanks for agreeing with me and seeing a few potential problems. I agree that we have a bad history of bribes and other 'bypass' means of law enforcement. I see your point when you say what would prevent this 'private cop' from taking bribes. The answer is in the economics. Since it is a private contractor who is paying the government for the privilege and at the mean time trying to maximize the profit on his investment, he would not think twice before firing a 'private cop' for taking a bribe. For a government employee the risk for taking the bribe is minimal, but for a private employee, it can mean the termination of his job. This is the reason you have to bribe at every stage to get your money from a Government Treasury and almost never ever need to bribe at a private bank. The incentives for operation are different for different organizations and people. About the private cops being the feared ones, thats the exact idea. In fact I would like people to be petrified before violating a rule, even when there is no cop in sight. Yes, I agree with you on the possibility of these new found cops turning into Frankenstein and starting to manipulate things. That needs to be taken care of while drafting the contract between the Govt and the contractor. Something like 'someone is penalized due to manipulated evidence, the CONTRACTOR pays a hefty compensation'. Or may be this can be brought under consumer courts. -Shastri

sure, might be 36k/annum for joe cop, but thats what your average joe 'rican too is making on the books. you have got to see what your joe cop at 36k is enjoying. in all likelihood he has a boat parked in the neighborhood pier or at the very least, has a RV parked in his garage. Gets the best in health for him and his family, and even in a fledgling social security market, gets the best in retirement benefits. believe, me gets top $ for OT. not to mention prime time on TV. when was the last time, you saw that adroit basappa cop on TV? so, whats the cream on a 50$ traffic violation ticket? if he gets caught then he's a lot to lose. but big city cops - NYC, boston, LA, Chicago etc.., where the $ gets lot less, they've got their fingers in all sorts of gravy. dont make news,back in des, like your neighborhood desi cop, but you name the crime, the amriki has got a hand in it, including dumping fridges in rivers and skimming municipal dump yards. all this comes on top of strict cross referencing & accountability. my point being if you increase these, and improve the benefits and penalities, then your average desi cop is not different from you average amriki cop in terms of skill, morals or ethics.