Corrupt but competent is an oxymoron.
It's a catchy phrase used in Pakistani politics but think about it for a moment.
Competent means the ability to get things done the right way.
Corrupt means you rely on illegal activity, like bribery, to get things done.
If you rely on corruption for your system to work then you are incompetent by default.
It is not black and white. Such sweeping statements should be avoided.
People who have had no exposure of working in the public sector in Pakistan or live in the West usually have a very simplistic and naive understanding of how corruption works, why corruption happens and the different layers of corruption.
Also, it is important to distinguish between the corruption of politicians such as Pervez Khattak, Jahangir Tareen, Nawaz, Zardari etc. and the corruption of civil/public servants.
Corruption happens not only because of greed but also because of circumstances. People in the public sector are grossly underpaid especially CSP officers and and corruption works like oil that keeps the engine moving. Without bribes, kickbacks and below-the-table deals, nothing would get done in Pakistan.
In an ideal world, you would develop a system that can function with zero corruption, but that cannot happen in overpopulated third world countries.
Corrupt and competent is not an oxymoron. Take the BRT metro bus project in Peshawar.
Millions and millions of rupees have been wasted on that project and the budget has been exceeded by about 10 times because PTI decided to hand over the project to a cheap construction company that was blacklisted by the PMLN government.
To give an example of their incompetence, after spending 2 years and millions of rupees, they realized that the track was not wide enough for two buses to pass through simultaneously.
As a result, they had to demolish everything and start all over again, wasting millions of rupees.
Even a person with no project management experience in construction would tell you that correct estimation/calculation of the width of the tracks is something that needs to done very early in the project and not after spending 2 years and wasting millions.
The fact that this construction company had to redo the tracks and cost the government millions is a clear example of their incompetence.
Now even if they didn’t do a rupee of corruption, what good is their honesty when they are so incompetent?
On the other hand, if the project was offered to a company that did not have dunce engineers, they could have constructed the metro bus without starting all over again after two years due to incorrect calculations.
Now even if this company did some corruption, they would still prove to be more useful than the current dunces.
India is a good example of how corruption and competency can coexist. India have achieved considerable economic and industrial growth since its economic liberation in 1991 in spite of rampant corruption because they focused on building competencies rather than eliminating corruption.
Pakistan’s focus is entirely wrong. We wrongly believe that eliminating corruption is the solution to our problems and we rarely focus on competencies.
The priority should be to employ qualified people and not honest people. If these qualified people are honest that would obviously be the perfect solution, but a competent but dishonest person would still bring more value than an honest but incompetent person.
Take a look at Imran Khan’s Science and Technology Minister.
Even if we assume that Fawad Chaudhry is honest, what value will a mediocre lawyer like him bring to Science and Technology Ministry?
Few months back, he claimed that Pakistan sent the Hubble telescope to space and I bet he cannot tell the difference between an atom and a molecule.
His greatest achievement in this position is probably going to be ensuring that the country celebrates eid on the same day.
Would it not be better to give this ministry to a man of science with a clear vision and understanding of how to drive this ministry forward?
