How to deal with bribing?
 

Hello everyone,

I was wondering if any one of you has encountered a situation where you had to bribe an official, be it a police man at a check point or somewhere else. How did you deal with the situation and how do you read that they want a bribe? I'm preparing a trip through central Asia to the far east of Russia and I was wondering what I should expect.

Cheers!

Corrupt Police are a constant problem for local people after you are gone, so I do my best not to encourage it in any way.

I usually have plenty of time, so I just play dumb: "I don't understand" is my standard response, repeated over and over until they decide they are wasting their time and move on to another target.

I noticed at the Uzbek/ Kazahk border that all the truckers had cash tucked into their passports; I did not. I was refused entry.

'Big problem' said the agent when he looked at my documents.

'Problem? No problem' I said. I knew my Visa was good.

He was not subtle.

'Souvenir from America?' he asked, winking at me, and rubbing his thumb and 2 fingers together. ' I don't understand.' I said.

He kept my passport and sent me to sit on the bench by the wall. I read my book and repeated 'I don't understand' every time he motioned me to come back up. This went on for an hour or so until he gave up on me. Literally cost me nothing: I was happy to do some reading.

He stamped my passport and went back to stealing from the truckers.

Be sure not to confuse bribes with real fines, though. If you were speeding, you pay the ticket. If you were making illegal passes, running lights: same thing. Try to get an official ticket, though, and pay at the local governmental offices- not in cash on the street to the officer.

The only time I know of that I paid off an official, was going into Tajikistan, when they asked me to pay special fees for spraying down my bike with pesticide. I later talked with others who had not had to pay those fees.

.................shu

After over fifty countries including Russia, all of eastern Africa and South and Central America, I have only been directly asked for a bribe once (to forget a genuine speedng fine in Tanzania). I think that new travelers fear of bribery is much overblown and it is often not helped by the mass media plus a small percentage of travelers who like to make their blogs/ Facebook pages etc exciting by embellishing their stories with how they had to fight of corrupt officials.

In most places if you follow the rules, don't try and rush things, don't assume every request for money is a bribe request, it is not an issue. I admit there were one or two times when I was asked for a questionable fee but sometimes it is hard to tell what is a genuine fee (vehicle disinfection for example when there was no disinfectant available - is it just they have none at that time, or is it a locally invented charge?) My view is if it is only a couple of dollars, if the locals seem to be paying it, or you get some sort of receipt, then I'll pay it: sometimes it is not worth an argument.

Also bribery issues are different from extortion. I have met a couple of places in South and Central America where locals with a rope across the road and a machete casually to hand ask for a "road repair" fee. These you have to deal with on a case by case basis trying to pay roughly what the locals pay (for there are never enough tourists for this to be just applied to them). But I also add at some of these local stops I was also waved through with no payment required because I was a tourist. So it all balances out.

In summary I suggest that you will not find the need to pay bribes a significant problem and common sense will dictate the best way forward if and when it occurs.

Enjoy the travels - the locals are friendly wherever you go.

Sent from my Moto G (5S) Plus using Tapatalk

Playing dumb, smiling foolishly a lot, asking about their families and home villages, offering business cards and insisting that they visit you in your home country, or merely waiting it out....whatever you can think of aside from actually paying a bribe. I don't know what to say about people who have seldom or never had bribes requested or demanded--maybe they lead charmed lives. Apparently, I do not.

I've also been threatened quite often--sometimes subtly, sometimes overtly. After a long period without paying anyone off, I encountered a late-night roadblock in northern Cote d'Ivoire. The man separated me from the locals on the truck, pulled me into the darkness and started yelling at me; I tried my usual clueless waiting game, but eventually admitted to myself I was alone, friendless, and totally helpless on the fringes of a civil war. Then I tripped over something invisible, and the man shone his flashlight briefly on stacked belts of ammunition feeding a machine gun aimed at our truck. I negotiated him down to a reasonable rate (I remember US$5, but my memory is not what it used to be) and was released.

I feel no particular need to embellish these stories. The lesson I extracted from this one, purely for my own use, was that moral purity about such situations has its limits. But I still resist as best I can, since my refusal to pay might make things easier for you, as vice versa.

Mark

Thank you all for the replies. Like some of you said, the world isn't as mean as the media makes it seem. On the other hand, I do believe that situations that Markharf describes happened. While every situation is different, I do think that I have a better idea of what to do and what to expect. Thanks :thumbup1:

First time i got asked i didn’t have to play dumb; i was dumb!

I was in a car in Zimbabwe and got stopped at about the 10th police roadblock of the day (apparently it was payday but no government cash). Went through the usual ‘can i fine you’ checklist - where’s you fire extinguisher, where’s your hi-viz, do you have a radio licence etc. Then they guy told me he was thirsty, “did i have anything for him, something to drink”.

I innocently handed him my half drunk bottle of water apologising that it was all i had and both he and my African savy passenger looked at me with disbelief. Only after we got waved on did my passenger point out that he didn’t want a drink, he was asking for a bribe!

^^^^ That's got to be the best story....


He asked for a drink.... and got just what he asked for bier

I once "bribed" a border guard by teaching him to hit on a girl in French. He was after cigarettes, gifts, knives, ... first. But in the end settled for learning how to say "je 't aime" to his female border colleagues...

The "play dumb and waste their time" advice is the usual line offered regarding corrupt cops or border officials.

Worth noting that in Central Asia the procedure if you actually have committed a traffic offence is they write you a ticket which you take to the police station. They will assess the fine (which is usually smaller than the attempted bribe) and you go to a bank to pay it. The bank gives you a receipt which you take back to the cops and they cancel the ticket. Trying to leave the country with an outstanding ticket can cause problems at the border. Police on the road cannot issue spot fines, and cannot issue a receipt ("kvitantsiya") so indicating you want one can be a negotiating tactic.

As an aside, other than wasting your time, has anyone actually run into any real problems by refusing to pay police fines/bribes? Loss of documents, arrest etc?

Don't pay, wait it out, smile a lot and show no fear.
As soon as you show an ounce of fear, you are done!

They know what they are doing is illegal, they know they will get disciplined if caught in most cases. If they try and escalate the situation, stay calm, note down their names and numbers or take a photo. At the end of the day, they don't need the hassle, better to move you on looking for the next victim.

I've paid the road work folks in South/Central America, especially if they have done work. I consider it entrepreneurship, a good characteristic that deserves a reward. There is no cash work in many rural areas and this is one opportunity taken with no guarantees of a financial reward. Same with SOME of the locally organized self defense groups who are keeping the drug groups out and making it safe for locals and tourists. They have no other funding sources other than volunteer contributions from local travelers and from the occasional traveler like us who have comparatively way more disposable income. Sharing the wealth with the right folks creates good will to travelers.

I don’t know NavalArchitect outside of this form but he was helpful to me sharing his route knowledge in Africa 3 years ago, which I really appreciated. I for one am very happy taking his valuable experiences at face value.

This quote from navalarchitect rings true to me.

It is much the same with the decades of fear mongering in the USA regarding the safety of any kind of travel elsewhere in the world. "Don't go! They all hate us and you'll die!"

...............shu

If NavalArchitect was indeed lucky enough not to have many negative experiences with police bribery in his supposed travel of 50 countries than good for him, but it is naive that he considers his experiences to be the norm and not an outlier. I'm not sure why he feels the need to discredit other riders who did not have the same experience as he did. Maybe he will learn his lesson in the future if a future corrupt police officer holds a gun to his head.

It is important to always be aware and cautious of your surroundings when traveling. Pretending that third world country police are the same as first world country police does not make sense to me. It is true that you could easily have a bad experience with the police in your own country, but the odds are a lot greater in a country that has known police corruption problems like Peru for example.

I agree that many potential motorcycle travelers probably worry more about corrupt police more than they need to. The greatest risk is wild animals and crazy drivers in the mountains coming around a corner in your lane.

It is very helpful to read about other rider's experiences both positive and negative (or in NavalArichitect's case: all positive- verrry helpful...).
I for one am very happy when someone posts about a negative experience with robbery, police bribery, theft, mugging & etc. There is a saying in aviation that says "You should learn from the experiences of others because you will not live long enough not to."

In South America a corrupt police officer held a gun to my head and threatened to kill me if I caused him trouble. I made a thread about the police checkpoint where this happened to me and saved many other rider's from having a very negative experience at this checkpoint.

Initially, after I posted the warning a few guys like "NavalArchitect" posted that they thought I was making it up and other derogatory comments. After a month other riders rode through this checkpoint and thanks to my warning were prepared about how to deal with the scams the corrupt police at this checkpoint were trying to run. I got lots of thank yous, and Zero apologies from the NavalArchitect's in the thread.

Come on gatogato, we’re not here to take chunks out of each other. Why would you question this - he even lists out where he’s been in his profile?

In Botswana I got caught speeding. I drove through a village. I didn't see any buildings to the left and right for 500m already and so I thought I must have missed a sign and accelerated. A few 100m later I rode around a bend and saw a police officer with a tripod and behind him the sign I was looking for. They stopped me and took my documents and demanded around 80$ for going 80 in a 60 zone.(Little fuzzy on the exact numbers, bear with me)

I claimed to not have that much money so the chief who was waiting in in his car with the AC on told me to go back into the village to withdraw cash. I did so, with an old card that didn't work, made sure that the bank employees noticed me and had a quick chat with them in case they knew the police, headed back to the check point and told them my story ofter hiding my excess cash in my luggage.

In the meantime they caught a pair of tourists with the same problem and so we formed a little convoy and headed to the police station.

There the haggling started. I made it clear that I can't withdraw any cash, and hinted that I would be open to alternative solutions to this problem. The chief seemed to be very pleased to pardon me in exchange for a small contribution(15$ maybe?) gave me a receipt, which I wanted in case something would come up when leaving Botswana, and after a heartily handshake I headed towards ZA.

In hindsight it was a dick move from me. I was speeding, I had the cash and even if I hadn't I could have withdrawn enough.

But at this point I was already to fed up with officials wanting some form of favour or another that I didn't want to give any money if I didn't have to.


Points where I sat around for a long time where some exchange of currency could have accelerated things:

- Entering and exiting Mauritania. For the entry from Morocco I was with 5 other people on bikes and we hired a fixer, still took hours to get the paperwork done, but we paid around 5$ each and would have been utterly lost without the fixer so it wasn't that much of a loss. When leaving towards Senegal we sat around a lot at the Mauri and Senegal side. I think one of the others handed over 10$ but I remember the beer at Zebrabar better to be honest.

- All of Nigeria. It started at a traffic police roadblock 25km after the border, lost around 90min there because apparently I should have shipped my saddle bags to Abuja instead of overloading my bike. They even arranged a guy with a mobile ATM. Besides the charge being bogus, that seemed sketchy to me so I refused to pay 100$. After the 90min one guy said that I could leave because the chief pardoned me. I went to the chief and gave him a firm handshake and thanked him enthusiastically for the Nigerian generosity. Then there were multiple other roadblocks where the "officials"(don't know if they even were officials, most didn't wear uniforms because they would get dirty) made it quite clear that the process could be shortened. On the outskirts of Abuja I ran into a military roadblock, maybe the 10th that day, and grew quite impatient. Because of that I didn't lick any boots as I usually did which angered an officer and so I had to unpack my bike and had my whole luggage searched. I then travelled towards Cameroon with Argo, he did the talking. We arrived at the Cameroonian border quite late and the officers didn't want to let us pass despite me negotiating in French. Argo took over and, in his words, started "talking African". We left customs within 5min.

- The Cameroon RoC border was interesting. The Cameroonian side wanted to buy my bike, the Congolese side wanted money. First the police, then immigration and finally some health inspector. I played dumb, smiled a lot and spoke worse French with every minute. It took me 90min I think, but I left without paying. It's noteworthy that the police took the least time to get past and in both subsequent attempts intervened on my behalf.

- DRC was a mess with all kinds of institutions. I was handed a DGM form around 5 times, and was charged either 50 or 100$. Every time I claimed that the ambassador said the formalities would be free of charge, and the last DGM officer didn't charge anything anyway. It worked, but I lost at least 30min each time. This is where I finally lost my patience with officials and became bolder with my statements, which led to the situation in Botswana.

After that it was rather smooth sailing.

Imagine the salary of those officials, and then the costs of living, this dosen´t match.
When I went into Kirgistan, I was welcomed by a bunch of special forces, fully masked with rapid fire guns, violently pushed into my chair when I wanted to leave. For not stopping at a stop sign which was covered by a bus, they even had a video of it. I only had a 50€ bill which was then gone. It tought me the lesson to always have a bribe purse. In Elista/Russia, I was asked by a police officer "do you speak english?" I said "yes", and he replied to himself in russian "but I don´t, dawai, dawai." When I crossed into Kazakhstan from Kirgistan, I had a german chocolat bar on top in my Top Case (which was always the first to be checked.) The fat one got greedy for it and stopped the slim one from searching me, as soon as I gave the chocolate bar to him.
In Marocco I was once given back the 30€ bribe, because of my heartwarming story about my time in North Africa as a child, which never happend. My french is excellent, it prevented me from paying a bribe on the same trip. But I don´t care if the fine, which I pay for mistakes I make goes into any private pocket. It´s an individual thing, whenever your violating the traffic laws, feel free to pay the just fine, even if it goes into the private pocket...why does anyone want to be the teacher of those people, without knowing the whole story. Maybe he has no other choice, or has to take the chance. If you run a navigation system, you´ll have a proof of your v-max (put the reset button in sight ;-) )if you have an action cam (not even running), you just tell them you have a video of the last half hour. It worked everytime.

It´s easy maths: Corruption will vanish as soon as the officials get enough wages for their living, but then we will have to pay the same prices for everything as at home. In Albania a judge in Tirana owns around 700 €, a flat will cost 400 - 500€...
So here is may plead to every traveller: please do not intend to teach the locals what is right and what is wrong, without knowing thr the whole story, no one likes that not even a welsh ;-) and it´s the same all over the world. The secret is blending in, even if you have a different opinion...just my 2 cent.

Will they ask money?
 

Oh yeah, I know what you’re talking about: I lived the same situations in Central Asia, but the funny fact was that they always trying to get money not from me, but ALWAYS from the guy I was traveling with. Next time there I will surely be alone, and I’m curious to know what they will do with a solo female traveller.

An interesting question for sure. When I've traveled with women I've always noticed that the pickpockets ignore them and come straight for me--not sure whether that's based on an assumption that as the male I'll be in charge of carrying all the money, or maybe it's squeamishness (or fear) about touching a woman.

Any other insights into this?

Oh, you already have been ill in Central Africa or Asia? No doc will have a look at you before you pay the bribe, then better die and not pay?
I have first hand insight in the efforts of getting rid of the corruption in Albania. If noone pays the bribes for the judges, they won´t be able to afford their life, what happens next: there will be no more judges, and if this happens corruption will be be bigger than before. Every week they kick out at least one judge or high rankinking official. How do you know the next one isn´t as corrupt as the kicked one? The present situation is, that there are regional parliaments which cannot work, because of a lack of members (they are all kicked out). Note that corruption is more than mere paying money for someone to do the job. Your onsight is very "black and white" and lacks of knowledge. "a lot of opinion, for this litte knowledge!"

Maybe you simply have no idea what corruption means. Or how a nation should work without officials...this is nonsense. Maybe have a look at nations without much corruption to understand better. The income must match the prices for living, if there´s no balance, the doors for corruption are open. and yes, you can´t teach the locals about corruption, but that´s what you suggest by not paying bribes at all. And for doctors to have a look at you, you first have to pay an "entry fee" in many countries. No matter what insurances you have. Most insurances pay your bills after you paid them on the spot, most doctors, hospitals or other medical services don´t accept a payment by any insurance, they just don´t want to have all the paperwork, this also happend to me in the U.S. And you pay just to be accepted as a patient, not in the EU or US, but in many other countries. The medical service is extra, you don´t seem to have much experiences with this topic. I do! So please don´t give advice about it. And absolutely YES to avoid paying bribes if possible.

I very much agree with NA's sentiments. Over many years, I've ridden many miles in many countries and only recall paying a bribe once: Peru in 2001. Speeding (95kmh in a 35 zone... doh:innocent: ) Guilty as charged! Paid 12usd sin factura instead of the much larger amount con factura. Another time in Kazakhstan the cnutstable wanted payment for no reason too. I wasn't in a good mood and told him and his mate they were fat pigs and should get some exercise. Luckily neither understood English. :D

Imho, it helps to have a chilled outlook, avoid believing the hype (ultra extreme hardcore adventure ring antenna etc...) on social media and take the trail/road less travelled. Also smile a lot (not always possible) if you do actually get stopped. In Latin America do try the "no fumar Espanol" line (without laughing!!).

I'm going try being a deaf/mute next time some excuse for a human in uniform stops me if I haven't genuinely committed any misdemeanor.

I believe that being asked for bribes depends a lot on your look and attitude... I've not been travelling everywhere (far from that) : I've been a few times to north africa and central asia. When travelling, I don't really look like the rich westerner : 2 months beard, same shirt for a week, a shower once in a week and so on... In areas with a fair amount of foreigners, I guess I look like a hard job in comparison to other travelers (and I try to be). As a result, I've really rarely been asked for money.
Compare that to a middle-aged swiss couple I met in Kirghizstan : They drive a rental land cruiser (just the two of them in it, a rare sight in the Pamir!), they are clean, they got all the brand new gear and look impressed by every man in a hat they see... If I was to ask for bribes, I'll go straight to them, not for the broke looking bearded dude who smile like a retard.

I doubt my look is my only safe-conduct : I try to be nice to the officers (after all, they are just doing their jobs), shake their hands, never refuse to give a cigarette when asked (even though I quit smoking, I keep a pack for this purpose) and ask them questions about them (If they are from the area, if they like it here, if they know my home country, etc...)

Anyway, I think we can all agree that smiling and playing dumb is the basic here !

The best way to deal with bribery is to hope no one sees you taking the money, shove in in your back pocket and get the hell out of Dodge.

I've heard this before, but I'm not sure I agree.

I think to another Westerner you probably do look like 'a broke looking bearded dude', just barely getting by and not worth trying to steal from.

But I suspect that to the local Mexican, Peruvian or Tajik, you look like a person who doesn't need to work, who doesn't ever worry about getting enough to eat, and who seems to be free from the yoke of their government. A person who, when things get bad, can just go to the airport and fly away.

Everywhere I go, I smile a lot. People think I'm friendly and approachable- but I know they're looking at my teeth and thinking I'm rich because my teeth are in good shape. They're looking at my motorbike and thinking about how much it must cost.

At home I'm not a rich man, but out in the world, no matter how I dress, and where I eat: people know that I've got a lot more than they do.

............shu

Yup. There may be a marginal differences between how one or another of us is viewed, but basically we're all rich outsiders. The local people know it, and they're perfectly correct.

I've seen ratty Western tourists mobbed by crowds of scammers and touts, while others are left alone. The people who hassle you (or don't) are responding to your comfort, confidence, and ability to withstand their pressure--not to how you're dressed or what kind of bike you ride. A flicker of uncertainty in the eyes is all the signal they need.

That's been my experience, anyway--both as the object of hassles and as an observer. As a teenager I learned how to project a kind of confidence which kept me safe on the street in New York; as an adult, I learned how to do that in different countries and cultures. I used to look like prey, but now, when I've actually got a lot more to lose, I apparently don't.

But: YMMV.

Mark

You guys are absolutely right : even if I really want it, I'll never be able to blend in when traveling overland. I do look like the guy that has money and doesn't need to worry or whatever compared to the locals. But, in comparison with other travelers, I'm sure I don't. What I say is : I try not to be the easiest and most profitable guy to steal from. Thtat's why I emphasized "in comparison". And I feel like the attitude is a big part of this as well.
I try to be as hard of a target as I can when it comes to bribery. Wasting their time and smiling and not understanding while being kind is what I do. It is not failproof tho. Especially if they have nothing else to do and no other easier prey in sight !