I'm left wondering whether such direct intervention of the legal system is the only way to contain the rampant bribery. For instance, what if employment contracts for officials make them agree to an "I will not accept bribes and I understand that I can be fired for doing so" clause, and also a "I hereby declare that have not accepted bribes in the past and understand that I can be fired if it was found to be otherwise".
I'm using loose language, but that kind of thing can tie bribes to contract laws and impact the employability anywhere of an official who accepts bribes. To further facilitate evidence collection, it can be made legal to secretly record (as audio/video) transactions solely intended to expose corrupt officials.
See http://india.5thpillar.org/ZRN for an innovative approach to fighting bribery. An organization has printed official looking ¨zero rupee notes¨ which people give to officials demanding a bribe, and has reported some success in deterring the practice.
Surely the fact that accepting bribes is illegal would implictly mean that employees could be fired for doing so? I can't imagine that adding a bit of extra language to the employment contract saying "don't do illegal thing x" is going to stop people from doing it any more than the fact that x is illegal in the first place.
The point the OP was trying to make is that such legislative changes make it easier to catch bribery (and thus -- it would diminish).
If paying you a bribe is illegal -- then I'll do it and cover my tracks. If paying you a bribe is legal and as bonus I get my money back if I rat you out -- then that's awesome for me. But the likely case is -- you wont be asking for that bribe anymore -- as you know it's now a lose/win situation.
I'm using loose language, but that kind of thing can tie bribes to contract laws and impact the employability anywhere of an official who accepts bribes. To further facilitate evidence collection, it can be made legal to secretly record (as audio/video) transactions solely intended to expose corrupt officials.