Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog by Boris Akunin

Author:Boris Akunin
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
ISBN: 9781588365804
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2007-01-29T16:00:00+00:00

On the pecuniary greed of officials

“Do you agree, my son, that no ruler, no matter how well-intentioned, can implement his beneficial ideas unless he possesses a sound and reliable set of tools in the form of capable and honest assistants, those self-same tools that in your bureaucratic dialect are referred to as ‘personnel’?”

“I entirely agree.”

“And what is to be done if this personnel is mired in base greed?”

“I do not know, father, that is why I have come to you. But the main problem is that all the officials are like that and there is nowhere to get any others from.”

“What do you mean, nowhere? In part you can invite high-minded individuals from St. Petersburg, and they will come, because they wish to apply their knowledge and convictions in practice. And honest officials can be found here; it is simply that at present they have no chance of advancement.”

“How am I to identify these honest men if they are not in open view?”

“I have been here for several years now, I know which men are worth something, and I will name them. But that is only a quarter of the job, because any man is corrupted by power if the wrong practices are established. And for the most part bureaucrats take to extorting money from people, not out of their own innate viciousness, but because that is the established practice, and if anyone does not extort, then he is regarded with suspicion by his superiors and his subordinates.”

“But how can the correct practices be established so that extortion becomes unfashionable?”

“Are you familiar, my son, with the saying according to which a fish rots from the head? This actually is the case, and medicine also affirms that all illnesses start in the head. To which I can add that in the reverse case the recovery of a sick person starts in the head. Before anyone can start to get better, he must wish to recover and believe in his own recovery.”

“But where should I begin? The most important thing here is to make a good beginning!”

“Choose yourself honest and efficient people to be your closest aides: the vice-governor, the manager of state property, the heads of the excise and provincial administrations, and also the chairmen of the chambers of justice, supervision, and the treasury. And, of course, the top people in the police, that is absolutely essential. For a start, that will be enough. We have already talked about where to find the people; we can find a dozen or so who will suit from around the province and across Russia. And the very first thing to do is to conclude a covenant among yourselves: We are not harnessing ourselves to this carriage in order to enrich ourselves, but in order to get things done. And if anyone feels that he has a weak spot, let him leave, or at least not take offense if he is asked to leave. Let every one of your close colleagues make a public declaration of his property and henceforth not conceal his income or his expenditures from anyone.

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