Brokers and the Bureaucracy
In most of my few experiences with the bureaucracy I have noticed one thing in common and that is “brokers”. I have tried to analyze how these brokers get the authority that they have in my article.
The first experience I want to write about occurred at the BRTA (Bangladesh Road Transport Authority) office in Mirpur. I was accompanying my father there when he went to pay the transportation tax and renew the fitness papers. Since I was only accompanying my father, I just observed what was happening. I noticed that as soon the car was parked and my father got out of the car some men approached him and were trying to persuade him into letting them handle everything. They promised to get everything done faster and accurately if my father paid some extra money. These people are what we know as brokers. Since my father has to go to BRTA every year, he avoided them and did everything by himself but there were people who took help from these brokers. These people did not have to stand in lines for hours since the brokers just took their papers and walked right into the offices through the staff entrances. For an extra 3000 taka, the brokers did everything in their stead and they really did get it done faster. The presence of brokers is not only exclusive to BRTA, I spotted brokers in passport offices and even in the immigration office near the Indian border.
It always made me curious how people who were not employed by the government had such authority that they could easily get the things done whereas normal citizens had to undergo problems completing the same task. I had two questions regarding these brokers-
1) Why do the citizens let these people exploit them?
2) Even if it is convenient for the citizen to take a broker’s help, why do the bureaucrats go along with this mechanism as well?
First, let us look into why the citizens would prefer having a broker do their work than doing it themselves and how these brokers can talk the citizens into paying higher and receiving their help. Information asymmetry i.e. not knowing the know how of the process often leads people into taking a broker’s help. The brokers can also use information asymmetry to their benefit and exploit the citizens. It is not uncommon hearing “The way you filled in the form is wrong. Let me help you.” from a random person in passport offices. There is also rule ambiguity which often makes the citizen confused about how they should follow the rules. For example, it might not be mentioned whether a form needs to be filled in normally or in block letters. Even simple mistakes might lead to the citizen having to repeat the process all over again. This ambiguity allows the broker, again, to have more knowledge than the citizen and therefore they can actually save the citizen from unnecessary problems. The information asymmetry and rule ambiguity lead to procedural difficulty for the citizen which makes them reluctant to do the things themselves and instead they find relying on brokers much easier despite the extra money they might have to pay.
Now, we will look into why the bureaucrats allow the brokers to act and why do they actually prefer dealing with brokers rather than citizens (considering the fact that brokers do get priority most of the time). As we mentioned just a while ago, many citizens lack the know-how of the process and therefore they may make mistakes that a broker would not. Therefore, when a broker does the paperwork and everything else instead of a citizen it simplifies the bureaucrats’ work as well. Accountability also plays a role in the bureaucrats’ preference. The officials are not necessarily held accountable for how they are interacting with the citizen. If their accountability is procedural it hardly matters whether the client was directly the citizen or a broker. A bureaucrat’s decision can also be defined by rational choice theory which states that an actor will choose that decision which maximizes their benefit and minimizes the cost. Since, prioritizing the broker does not result in severe consequences and brokers simplify the work process for the bureaucrat, it may be their rational choice to prefer a broker over a citizen. And lastly, there is also the monetary gain that a bureaucrat receives from a broker. As we have discussed before, brokers usually charge extra money and often times it is heard that this money is also shared with the officials. However, this monetary gain may not be the prime factor that makes the bureaucrat prefer a broker considering that the official could take the money directly from the citizen as well.
I have somewhat tried to answer the questions I had previously raised, but there is no doubt that more complex arguments can be made regarding this topic. I look forward to comments about the many other aspects of this situation that can be examined.
