Editorial Comment: Bribery a double offence, always remember that

Corruption is usually a two-way affair and when it involves bribery there must be two people, the one paying and the one accepting the bribe.

We tend to ignore the one offering the bribe, who is then the one who pays, while we concentrate on the total evil of the one who takes the bribe. 

Yet both are completely reprehensible, both should be charged and both should be convicted on the same evidence and then get identical sentences. It would show a fine sense of appropriate justice if they shared the same cell when they went to prison.

The police are now fairly obviously tackling this problem of bribery in their own ranks. We all know that at one stage it was rampant, and was even partially legalised by one top officer who allowed police to pretend there was an offence, demand an instant fine, and then pocket the money. 

The fine books were never audited nor was a magistrate invited to go through a book.

Then the police started going after their own and that can produce results although it often requires someone to complain before the investigations can be launched, since investigators do need to know some officer is on the take. 

Those complaints were rare for several reasons: bribe payers were committing a corruption offence themselves; the bribe payer was normally committing another offence they wanted condoned with the minimum of fuss, and so was ready to pay the bribe and the corrupt police could threaten arrest for a more serious crime.

But one problem was that a lot of people preferred to pay some small sum under the counter to avoid other trouble, since they were usually guilty of something else, such as operating a taxi without a licence. 

Or perhaps they could not just be bothered. A few did say they needed to collect the money, went to the police, were set up with notes that had recorded numbers and so helped to nail the corrupt cop. 

But some were rounded up and senior police were starting to watch their subordinates more closely.

Recently the police have moved over onto the offensive. We have already had a number of smuggling suspects, vehicles drivers and bus company employees, arrested on allegations of offering bribes to police at a road block. 

We have had mushikashika drivers arrested for the same offence, although these were probably trying to get through the road block.

And then on Friday last week, police running the normal checkpoint roadblock near Norton, managed to arrest 23 people over four hours who offered them bribes, for what appears to be to ignore fairly low level violations since the sums ranged from US$2 to US$10. 

This suggests they have done this before or have heard from someone who has done it before what sort of sum to offer.

But this time they were arrested.

We hope that the police have reasonable evidence that will stand up in court. A lot of the problem of dealing with bribery, from either end, is assembling the evidence and having something that is more than one person’s word opposed to another person’s.

But considering that the gossip around town is that the police at a roadblock are all in a corruption racket together, if they are on the take, with drivers being referred to the bag officer to make the payment, there are likely to be witnesses, at least at the moment.

But the police could be thinking as people start realising that bribery is becoming toxic in having the conversations recorded. 

The technology is fairly basic; a modern mobile phone will record sound and video of sufficient quality to persuade a magistrate that what is being shown in court is what happened.

Although we have not the faintest idea of what, if any, defence will be offered by the several dozen now arrested in the last couple of weeks on charges of trying to bribe police we can imagine what some defence lawyers are likely to generate: there will probably be allegations of enticement, or even of people refusing to pay a bribe and so being arrested for trying to offer one.

Most of this sort of drivel can easily be dealt with when someone runs an audio or video clip in front of a magistrate, or even offers a nice picture of someone handing a banknote over to a police officer. 

But already the recent arrests will be having a very useful side effect. People will be realising that offering to bribe a police officer can make things a great deal worse and that it is far better to just go through the normal legal processes if they have committed some sort of offence. 

At the same time those invited to pay a bribe, even if it is only “hint hint” need to be ready to make their complaints, although remembering that making a false report to the police is a fairly serious offence.

But the net result of a proper anti-bribery campaign, working from both ends, is that fairly soon offering or asking for a bribe will not be one of the options available, and as we cross that line we will be moving into the corruption-free environment that we should all be desiring and wanting to see envelop our country.