This is an excellent idea - I wish that authorities in Pakistan would do something similar. The helpline gives advice to citizens on how to record audio-video evidence of officials asking them for bribes, and how to submit that to anti-corruption authorities with a promise to arrest the corrupt within 24 hours.
n tune with its electoral promise to battle corruption, the Aam Aadmi (common man) Party government has launched a helpline to allow people to report corrupt practises in government offices in Delhi.
The helpline number made public on Wednesday is the first-ever launched by any political party in India to tackle the menace of corruption in public offices.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said, “The helpline would empower citizens of Delhi.”
Complainants against corrupt officials in public offices can now phone the number and register an initial complaint.
Proof against the corrupt officer should be recorded in audio or video form and submitted as initial evidence to the anti-corruption branch to proceed to investigate the offender.
Kejriwal also said that the guilty would be arrested within 24 hours of receiving the complaint with evidence by the anti-corruption branch.
He said that the task requested by the citizen who was harassed for giving a bribe will be completed immediately following his registering the complaint.
what this means is new creative methods of asking for bribes will be invented, ones that leave no audio-video evidence. i'm skeptical of fixing corruption this way - the people and society of cowbelt culture need to change, not the rules.
Also the real problem of bribery and corruption is not at the level of the public with the civil officer ... The real major issues are in the middle ranks and these are hidden in bureaucratic over information. From the police to the utility companies the problems which will be hardest to monitor will be at the middle ranks because often the one giving the bribe is subject to the authority of the ones who are taking the bribes. Or that a budget is usurped and the minions underneath who can see this happening remain silent in the fear of losing their jobs if they spilled the beans.
Auditors are paid lots of cash on the side to turn blind eyes ...
I don't know... on the one hand it's heartening that the government itself has made this move. On the other hand, this can only be the first step in a long cleanup process. If you look at the causes of corruption (at the common-man level), it's rising costs, inflation, and inadequate salaries/low incentives for public servants (again I'm not talking about the high up officers or politicians). Corruption can be somewhat curbed by the fear instilled by such helplines, but it's going to take a major socio-economic overhall to do away with it completely. But yes, as a first step I do think the helpline will play a small part to check the blatant corruption that people are subjected to.
I think the "major" overhaul in South Asia is needed in police and judiciary. If they are cleaned up, recruited right and paid well they can fairly easily curb lots of corruption.