What roles does this rishwat/bribery play in business today?
It was quite a common practice in Pakistan some years back. Have things changed?
How is this subject broached?
How are such monies/favors exchanged?
Re: Rishwat
If anything, it has gotten lot worse in Pakistan now.
Re: Rishwat
In many companies (including mine), its part of ethic codes that how much should be that value of a gift if a client or potential client offers you one. I think it needs to be under 10 bucks and that is also like he paid for your coffee or or give you his company coffee mug. You accept any thing more and you could be removed from the project, lose your job or land in jail
Re: Rishwat
Jal Pari,
Can you give specific examples without names of course?
TLK,
Yes...we have the same code of conduct within our north american company.
I guess I want to know how this works in Pakistan.....especially in the large multi-nationals.
Re: Rishwat
As long as a company is not working for government , its all fine . But as soon as they touch government , they get corrupt . I worked for a telecommunication company working for government , and there was always something going on . But compare to public sector corruption is much less in private companies . I think good pay makes a huge difference and accountability .
Few of the tech. companies follow the same code of conduct as any company here in America .
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Yes Nauman....that seems to be the case.
My brother was working for a multi-national in Karachi some years back and the minute he had to deal with government contracts he was required to participate in such garbage.
Needless to say he quit and we moved back to Canada. After spending decades doing business around the world he simply couldn't hack what he was asked to do in Pakistan.
I guess living where we do we just do not learn how to handle such transactions. Which is the reason why I have posted this thread.......
There is a situation where someone I know is being asked to negotiate a contract and he feels that he is completely ill-equipped to handle talks about such matters. I was wondering if someone could give us a sort of "tutorial"......
As long as a company is not working for government , its all fine . But as soon as they touch government , they get corrupt . I worked for a telecommunication company working for government , and there was always something going on . But compare to public sector corruption is much less in private companies . I think good pay makes a huge difference and accountability .
Few of the tech. companies follow the same code of conduct as any company here in America .
I think accountability is one of the factors that is currently lacking significantly in the Pakistani system. There are virtually no instruments available to a citizen for asking an official or a department to render an account or to demonstrate and take responsibility for performance in light of public's expectations.
I’m not sure of the statistics, but in India, the government launched an RTI (right to information) initiative a few years back. I’ve heard good things overall, and perhaps Pakistan’s public system needs something similar.
Re: Rishwat
Munza - I don't think a lot has changed in pakistan in the last 20 years esp in the public /govt sector.
Both my parents served in the govt jobs in punjab and the practice of rishwat was/is present from govt hospitals to railraods and highway depts.
The private sector is getting better. Automated processes and practices are responsible for it because it takes the middle men out.
10 years ago my husband's team was asked to create an online application for ticketing for Pakistan railways. The govt was against the project from the get go. In the middle they wanted a urdu interface. The team even worked around that and deliver but the govt wouldn't put it into place because it takes the all the rishwat for ticketing out of the picture.
Till this day - all accounting, pricing and ticketing is done manually, tickets are sold in black and money is handled so the employees are allowed to get their "cut" up front.
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And this is the type of behaviour that keeps our country from progress.......
are we really as helpless as we feel we are?
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No we are not helpless. There is always hope.
Lets hope the next generation tackles the crumbling infrastructure of our country.