Confessions of a crooked agent: a touching hard luck story

The “truth” and the fight against corruption advocated so much by the new regime is making life rather difficult for the corrupters, and the corruptees.
Their income has not stopped from declining .
since the beginning of the campaign.
The case of a customs agent is quite indicative of the situation.
Let us call him R.
He has been working in one of Madagascar’s ports for five years now.
He has to pay the mortgage, and tuitions for his four children who are enrolled in the capital city’s better private institutions for higher learning.

He should not be able to afford many things on his meager salary of some 59 Euros.
However, he has a beautiful two-story home, well furnished, and surrounded by a beautiful garden; two cars, one of which is new; a 160 acre parcel of land.
“I bought it when business was still good,” he suggests.
By “business”, he means the perks of his profession.
“I cannot remember ever having money problems, since I have been a customs agent.
I was able to have my house built within nine months,” he proudly reveals.

R. admits that his cash flow is somewhat unpredictable.
“I can make any where between 73 to 600 Euros on one deal.
I generally take home approximately 770 Euros per month,” he adds.
The deal involves, among other things, expediting an automobile through customs.
Normally this would take approximately two days, but “I can do in a half day, when I personally take care of the paperwork which I personally hand-carry to the people in charge.
They are also in on it.”
They divvy up the payoff after the paperwork is handled.

Duty taxes are progressive.
This means that the “price” depends on “who the customer is”.
“For a Malagasy citizen who imports a single vehicle, the price varies between 73 to 147 Euros, or thereabouts.
However, when it comes to businessmen, often a foreigners, mostly Indo-Pakistanis, we impose between 294 and 735 euros, depending on the complexity of the paperwork.
Now and then, we do not even have to ask.
The customer makes the offer.”

A profitable fraud

To simplify document handling is one thing, expediting a number of automobiles through customs is another.
However, the same rule applies: the client must pay.
Accomplices, the customs agent and the owner of one or several vehicles which need to clear through customs, agree on falsifying the date on which a vehicle was built.
The practice is to age the vehicle by five to ten years.
The agent and the customer would then split the difference between the true duty tax amount, and the reduced one which is declared.
An old custom…

If this procedure proves a little too obvious, R. explains that he always finds other ways to reduce the duty tax amount by falsifying the vehicle identification card.
“If the vehicle is a 1995, the customer and I would photocopy the vehicle id card, erase the year in which it was built, replace it with 1985, and re-photocopy this modified copy so that the change is not too glaring.
This photocopy remains with customs, while the client keeps the original.
What else is one to do with such a meager salary?

Since the campaign against corruption was launched, R. is concerned.
No more gratuities, no more kick backs.
“My present salary will never be enough.
What the state pays me is pocket change.
Where would you have me go for my mortgage, my children’s monthly tuition, their food, and their supplies?”
he laments.
In August, he already had to sell one of his cars to keep his children in the capital city’s private schools.
Moreover, he is about to dismiss 3 of his domestics.
“I can no longer pay for my two drivers, and my maid.
It is best if they leave.”
His worst fear is to have to sell everything he owns.

“I can no longer afford to maintain my new car, the only one I have left, on my current income” he worries.
“I am not against ending corruption.
The only thing is, I would never make it on my present monthly salary.
Some other measures need to be implemented: increasing salaries, socio-economic grants, such as bonuses, to those who deserve it.
Otherwise, the temptation will just be too strong.
I would like to keep my job.
On one hand, I am afraid to get caught, red handed.
On the other, I realize that the practice often annoys people.
It is hard, but you get used to corruption.
It will never be totally eradicated unless the necessary changes come with significant incentives.”

Translated by J. F. Razanamiadana