An employee fulfilling his clients's transactions in another agency

18-4-2010 | IslamWeb

Question:

Salam Alaikum,
Islamic Ruling on Collecting Fixed Commission:
I wish to know Islamic ruling on Collecting Fixed Commission. I work in government organization that certify (registering for safety) products before marketing such products. As a pre-requisite for registration; Trademark registration is needed from a different government agency. We assist clients to register trademarks and charge them arbitrary fees for our services. For me I tell them the official fees and charge them extra fees for myself and those that will register trade mark in another Agency.
Does this amount to collecting bribe from clients? Even though is a service rendered to them from a different working place?
Thank you.

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

 

You should know that an employee in a governmental institution or anywhere else should not work during his official working hours for anyone other than the institution he works for, because he is a private employee and his services during working hours are exclusively owned by this institution.

Moreover, you have no right to take from the clients anything in return for guiding them to another governmental agency, or in return for asking the employees in that agency to carry out the transactions of those people. All these tasks are obligatory upon you and them as per your job descriptions.

However, if we presume that people other than the employees in both agencies render any services to the clients, then they may take a defined fee for those services, but it is not permissible for the employees to do so.

Allaah Knows best.