PNT's Gratitude Attitude

My Corruption Encounter: types of legal tender

Saturday April 25th, 2009. It’s 10am and I am just from participating in the Commonwealth Athletic walk. Getting up very early that morning (6am) I didn’t remember to take my car registration documents. After the walk I drive to the central market where I had a few items to buy before retiring for a soothing shower at home.

Most items bought, I cross the street to buy a mosquito net in the pharmacy. I decide to do a passer-by check on my car and I see, lo and behold, a dark red metal object is fastened to one of my tyres! Oops! My wheel had been clamped. The sight gave me the chills, where would I get 25.000CFA from to get it unclamped? ‘Calm down T’, I tell myself, ‘it’s not the end of the world’. I take a deep breath as I proceed into the pharmacy (all the time my mind is pounding and my mind’s eye kept seeing the image of my clamped wheel).

I step out of the pharmacy, walk across the street towards my car like it doesn’t belong to me. I pick up the information note on the windscreen and read “your wheel has been clamped for illegal occupation of the road; present this note in the services of the Urban Council for further information”.

I pick up the note and like a responsible citizen I cross the road to take a cab to go to the Urban Council office. Two taxis I stopped, none will take me. Sometimes some things happen for a reason. Some guy across the street beckons at me. I look around if he really meant me; there is no other person besides me standing there so I walk towards him. He asks me if the blue car with the clamped wheel is mine. Simply smiling, I concede.

He goes “where do you think you are going?” I tell him am just following the instructions on the information note, am on my way to the urban council office. He tells me, “It’s Saturday, whom do you think you will meet there?”. I am thinking ok… bottom line, he is a staff of the urban council. After presenting his badge, he invites me to my car for a “chat”.

He says if I have 10.000CFA I should put it in the car documents and give him to plead with his ‘boss’ to unclamp the wheel. Ah hah, I left home very early; you normally don’t go for an athletic walk with your handbag so the car documents were at home. And guess what? I had just 6.000 CFA on me. I put the money in an envelope and hand it over to him. He goes to see his boss but his boss says that’s not good enough, the boss actually comes over to me and asks for the car documents. No explanation on my part would suffice, the boss makes a phone call to his men to come and tow my car. Towing it will mean paying 30.000CFA! I beckon the first guy and explain to him “look, if your boss wants more money, I can transfer some calling credit to his mobile phone right away”. He negotiates with his boss who agrees that I transfer 3.000CFA to his phone and the wheel is unclamped. Of course no receipts were given for the payments.

Moral of the story: you might be a part of a win-win corruption encounter in spite of your initial intentions to act right.
Sometimes there is more than one type of legal tender, use your brain.