I think there's a real difference between a "facilitation payment" and a "bribe". In each case, the official intends to use their position for personal benefit - and yes that is clearly problematic - but in the former case, the payer has no corrupt intent.
It’s just the scale. A “facilitation payment” is a small bribe.
The payer of any bribe is participating in a corrupt system. Paying $1 to get your passport stamped is small, but it still is bad. Think of all the poor people who don’t have $1 and get hosed by this.
No, it's really not the scale - it's about intent. $100 to a customs officer to avoid being held up for a day when you've done nothing wrong is totally different from $100 to a customs officer to overlook unpaid duties on a suitcase full of goods.
It's a form of direct taxation. In most of these countries officials literally officially get paid $50 a month as their salary. But their position allows them to directly "tax" people in the ways being described here. Their boss and their bosses boss will probably be in on it and be receiving a cut.
Ok, if it's already calculated into the officials' salaries (the same way as waiters get paid less, because they get tips from customers), then they should at least give you a receipt for this "tax payment"...
I'm confused. Calling it a "facilitation payment" feels like a subcategory of bribes to me, and would be a form of corruption. Can you explain why you would see "facilitation payments" as not being corrupt?
A facilitation payment is a payment made to an official to do their job.
Real personal example: I'm trying to register my newly-purchased car with the RTO (c.f. DMV) in Bangalore. I have all the paperwork I need. The car is mine, my address details are correct, my proofs of address are sufficient, my fee is paid.
Only there are continual requests for more paperwork: different proofs of address, proofs of prior addresses in other countries, proofs that are officially stamped etc etc none of which are formally necessary.
On the advice of the car dealer, I paid INR 4,000 in facilitation money and suddenly the paperwork is in order and my car is registered.
The official's intent is to extort me for money, but my intent is just to comply with the law that requires my car to be registered. I'm willing and able to provide all the required paperwork. My intent is not corrupt.
If I was trying to register a car that was stolen, and I was paying the RTO official to overlook the inadequacies in my documentation, that would be a bribe. My intent is to pay the official not to do their job.
Ha. That still sounds sketchy. It would be like going to a DMV in the states to get your license and slipping a $20 to person who gives your driving test to get out of parallel parking or something....
It’s not bribing your way out of a crime or something but it is still dodgy and corrupt.
If you're paying someone $20 to get out of parallel parking in your driving test; that's a bribe.
If you're paying someone $20 to pass your driving test after you performed a perfect parallel parking maneuver but they baselessly claimed you were "too far from the curb"; that's a facilitation payment.
A lot of "bribes" in Africa are simply to expedite things. And in a lot of cases, they unfortunately need expiditing because the officials want money and delay it unnecessarily. Still, its quite a fair bit different to giving someone money to allow your AK47 shipment to go past customs.
Interestingly US law makes a distinction as well. You can’t bribe officials of foreigner governments, but paying money to speed up otherwise normal work said official would do is legal (to the US govt).
the US has (or used to have) this when it comes to processing certain forms/visa applications (I129, I140). it’s called premium processing. Is this corruption?
No because it is official policy with the money going to the organization. Having it go into the pocket of the person sets up perverse incentives that depend on the person.
If you get a receipt back for the "fee," it's not corrupting the process.
