One Click.. A List of Offices Where Bribes Are Reportedly Demanded!

—Surya Prakash Josyula

You have some work at a government office. You need a certificate, want to change details in a document, have some work at the RTO, need to visit a police station, or have a land-related issue at the Revenue office. You know what the work is and where you need to go. But there is always one small doubt: Will they ask for a bribe?

And if they do, how much will they ask? Do you really have to pay to get your work done? Or can you finish the work without paying anything? That is where the real dilemma begins.

Ideally, you would ask someone who had already visited the same office for the same work. But would they openly tell you, “Yes, I paid a bribe there”? Most people may not be comfortable sharing that experience.

So, the useful information is often the hardest to find. You want to know how much others paid, who demanded it, what work it was for, and whether the work could be completed without paying.

But where do you find all this information?

Wait. There is now a platform trying to put exactly this kind of information in one place. It is called Bribes.fyi.

Bribes.fyi is more than a simple website for reporting bribes. It allows citizens to anonymously share their experiences of being asked for money at government offices. Users can mention the department, city, amount demanded, and whether they paid or refused.

These reports are then added to a public database. So, before you visit a government office, you can check what people who went there before you have reported.

Is this like a ‘bribe review’ for government offices?

In a way, yes.

We check hotel reviews before booking a room. We look at movie ratings before buying a ticket. We read customer reviews before purchasing a product. Bribes.fyi brings a similar idea to government offices, although it is not an official rating system.

Instead, it shows the experiences reported by citizens and helps users look for patterns across departments and cities.

616 reports from 251 cities

As of August 17, 2026, Bribes.fyi had 616 reports from 251 cities. The police department accounts for the largest share, with 337 reports. RTOs follow with 88 reports, while Revenue/Land Records departments have 69. Passport offices have 43 reports and Municipal Corporations have 29.

These numbers do not mean that these departments officially have the highest corruption levels. They simply show where users of the platform have reported bribe-related experiences.

Did people pay or refuse?

There is another interesting part of the data. Around 38% of the reported cases involved people refusing to pay the bribe.

In some cases, users said they still received the service they needed even after refusing to pay. That raises an interesting question: is paying a bribe always the only way to get government work done?

Bribes.fyi does not provide a definitive answer, but its growing database gives citizens a way to compare experiences.

Not a national corruption survey

There is an important limitation. Bribes.fyi is not an official government survey or a national corruption index. Its data comes from people who voluntarily report their experiences.

That means many incidents may never be reported, while some cities or departments may have more reports simply because more people know about or use the platform.

So, the data should be seen as a record of reported citizen experiences, rather than a complete picture of corruption in India.

One more thing to check before you go

For years, visiting a government office meant checking the documents, fees and office timings before leaving home. Now, there could be one more thing on that list: checking the reported bribe history.

Documents? Checked.

Fees? Checked.

Office timings? Checked.

Bribe history? Maybe check that too.