Suppose you are the CEO of a company that manufactures specialized electronic equipment used by a government department. You have submitted your bid for the supply of this equipment to the department. Both the quality and cost of your offer are better than those of the competitors. Yet the concerned officer is demanding a hefty bribe for approving the tender. Getting the order is important both for you and for your company. Not getting the order would mean closing a production line. It may also affect your own career. However, as a value-conscious person, you do not want to give bribe. Valid arguments can be advanced both for giving the bribe and getting the order, and for refusing to pay the bribe and risking the loss of the order. What those arguments could be? Could there be any better way to get out of this dilemma? If so outline the main elements of this third way, pointing out its merits.
What the examiner wants
Weigh the case for and against paying the bribe and outline a better third way and its merits.
Demand-wise check
- 1Stakeholders: company and its workers, shareholders, government department, taxpayers, honest competitors, the corrupt officer≈40 words
- 2Arguments for paying: saves the production line and jobs, bid is genuinely best so public loses nothing, 'everyone does it'≈40 words
- 3Arguments against: illegal for bribe-giver too, sets precedent for future demands, reputational and legal risk, distorts fair competition, wrong means even for good ends≈40 words
- 4Third way: document the demand, raise it with higher authority of the department and its CVO, invoke Integrity Pact and Independent External Monitor, approach ACB/CBI for a trap if needed; meanwhile diversify customers to protect jobs≈40 words
- 5Merits: keeps company clean, may still win the order on merit, helps clean the system≈40 words
Open in about 30 words and close in about 30.
Answer plan
Where marks usually go
- Justifying the bribe on job grounds without legal consequences
- Proposing a third way that is only 'refuse and accept loss'
Draw this
- Decision matrix: pay / refuse / third way scored on legality, jobs, reputation, long-term business
Value addition
- LawPrevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act 2018 made bribe-giving a specific offence (Section 8) and makes commercial organisations liable unless they have adequate anti-bribery procedures (Section 9).Parliament, 2018
- PolicyCVC recommends Integrity Pacts with Independent External Monitors for major public procurement.Central Vigilance Commission
Mapped topper copies
Reviewed public-source references related to this PYQ. Same-syllabus references are labelled separately.
- Shakti Dubey · AIR 1 · Page 35 ↗Reviewed PYQ reference
- Aakash Garg · AIR 5 · Page 31 ↗Same syllabus reference
- Shakti Dubey · AIR 1 · Page 31 ↗Same syllabus reference
- Shakti Dubey · AIR 1 · Page 37 ↗Same syllabus reference
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