As reported in thehindu.com on 09 June 2012:
The Hindu : Today's Paper / NATIONAL : Government staff

Government staff ‘bribe' peers to get bills cleared

Staff of the Hassan tahsildar's office had to “bribe” their peers in the office of the Hassan Subdivision Assistant Commissioner to get their travel bills cleared.

This has come to light in the reply given by the Hassan tahsildar to a Right to Information (RTI) application.

The staff of the tahsildar's office paid Rs. 3,000 to two employees in the Assistant Commissioner's office last year to get their travel bills worth Rs. 16,800 cleared.

Retired government staff Gavirange Gowda had filed an RTI application seeking details of the travel bills of village accountants for 2010-11.

In his reply given on December 30, 2011, tahsildar K. Mathai, information officer, said Rs. 16,800 was released towards the travel expenses of village accountants for 2010-11.

Mr. Mathai said all village accountants unanimously decided to utilise the amount to organise a sports meet for the staff, which was held on April 9 and 10, 2011.

A sum of Rs. 13,800 was spent on organising the sports meet. That apart, Rs. 3,000 was reimbursed towards the payment made earlier to the manager in the Assistant Commissioner's office Somashekhar and case worker Sadiq Ahmed to get the travel bills cleared by the Assistant Commissioner, the reply said.

Mr. Gowda said: “The tahsildar has given in writing that Rs. 3,000 was paid to get the bills cleared. This is a clear proof to punish the guilty as both offering bribe and accepting it are against the law.”

He said he had forwarded the tahsildar's reply to the Chief Minister's office seeking action against the guilty. “As no action was taken against the accused, I decided to release this document to the media,” he said in a press note here on Thursday.When contacted, Mr. Mathai told The Hindu that the information that he had provided in reply to the RTI application was true.

“My staff had bribed the staff of the Assistant Commissioner's office without my knowledge. The two employees in the Assistant Commissioner's office demanded bribe to clear the bills and our staff paid it,” Mr. Mathai said.He said he had complained to the Assistant Commissioner against the two who had demanded bribe and issued notice to his staff for paying the bribe.