Dilbert: Do you think you might be abusing your power?
Wally: What would be the other reasons to have power?
Or, adapted to India:
Q: Is there corruption in the petrol pump allotment system?
A: Why else was the system designed?

Here is the dilemma.
Governments function on the basis of rules. If the rules are broadly defined and leave a lot of scope for interpretation, someone will move in and exploit these loopholes.
If the rules are tight and detailed, they fail to take into account contingencies. They constrict initiative and hamper decision-making.
Perhaps we could tackle this problem by giving government officials a set of broad guidelines, the freedom to choose how to achieve them, and enforcing accountability for results? This is called ‘Management By Objectives (MBO) and has worked in the private sector.
Unfortunately, in the public sector, it is very difficult to enforce this kind of accountability. Remember that we have just one vote which we can use once every five years to express our views on every issue ranging from Ramjanmabhoomi to the Mumbai Urban Transport Project. What are the chances that the issue of how petrol pumps are alloted will ever be a factor in the next general elections?
But of course, if there is a scam -either real or imagined, it will stay fresh in our minds.
So an honest official has no incentive to ever do good work – it will never get noticed.
There is really no other way – just privatize!