Grease Payments

Zinhle Sokhela:  PCB Director

Grease payments are those made by people to officials in the public sector who are in a position to take some action in favour of the person doing the paying.   Sometimes these payments are in kind rather than cash, and as we have read from time to time, often come in the form of a luxury motor car, or at least a discount on one.    Put plainly, they are bribes.   In some cases, the favour expected in return for the gift is clearly spelled out; in others it is not so clear, but there is an understanding that there will be some expectation in the future.   Sometimes, the gift appears to be given without any expectation at all, but this is naïve.   Mostly, when company executives take clients to international events, or give them tickets to the World Cup, or outlay large sums to entertain them, they are either using company money to favour their friends or they are soliciting future business.   Also, for the most part, if these actions are moderate in cost, it would be difficult to put them into the realm of corruption.   If my friend who runs a business gives me a discount, that is not corruption.  

However, we must accept that when big money is involved, or when the gift carries specified conditions, this is corruption.    We are inclined to hold the receiver of the gift responsible for this corruption since it is he or she who is expected to make the decision that favours the donor.   However, the person giving the bribe is equally guilty in terms of our law and this should not be forgotten when we criticise public servants.   

I have read an interesting thing in a magazine called “Business Brief”.   Grease payments, to go back to the starting point, are made either to persuade an official to take some action that he normally should not take – such as awarding a contract to a company that doesn’t deserve it, for example – or to encourage him to speed up the process of doing his job in the interest of the payer.   This is fairly common in Africa, I believe, where at a border post, for example, the payer’s documents are dealt with ahead of those who do not pay.   According to the expert that wrote the article, this kind of grease payment in South Africa represents a grey area: no one is quite sure whether it constitutes corruption or not.   In the US, however, it is not.   There it appears to be perfectly acceptable to bribe a public official to differentiate between people by favouring the one making the grease payment.   Frankly, I find this astonishing.  Have you ever been in a queue when the teller or cashier has gestured to his or her friend to jump the queue?   This is a most annoying experience because common understanding dictates that we are all entitled to fair treatment.   Most importantly, such fair treatment must be given by government.  Indeed, our constitution demands that this should be the case.   It is also absolutely unacceptable in my view, that a government official, who is being paid out of taxpayers’ money, should seek an opportunity to enrich him or herself.    And this is what happens quite frequently.   The official has two different work ethics – a prompt efficiency for those who pay; a reluctant delivery, or perhaps even no delivery at all, for those who don’t.   This is a world-wide phenomenon, by the way.   We are sometimes over-conscious of the corruption within our own country without fully appreciating that it happens elsewhere too – in fact, everywhere where there is inter-action between the public and  public servants.

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