ABSTRACT
A survey conducted on tracking corruption in eleven public services extrapolates that 145.4 million households paid bribes worth Rs 210.68 billion during the year 2005 (CMS 2005: 13–14). This means an average of nearly Rs 1,500 was paid as extra money by households in receiving one or more of these services through the year. The study focused on corruption experienced by the general public in securing services from government to which they are entitled; if it were to cover the extent of corruption at other levels such as businesspersons paying bribes to tax officials, and mega corruption in procurements of public works, equipments and consultancy services, the fluidity of corruption money would be astounding. In another study concerning drought management in Bolangir district of Orissa province, 63 percent of the respondents stated that the government’s welfare schemes were riddled with corruption (Srinivas and Nayar 2007: 20–21). Not surprisingly the Chief Economic Advisor to the Finance Ministry said that one had to chase every rupee 1 of public expenditure to see whether it was producing results or not and whether it was actually building the roads or educating the child it was meant to (Lahiri 2007: 26).
