In many cases, corruption is synonymous with lack of transparency.

Let's take the document renewal example; if that excuse were true, and someone showed up with money [or even the raw materials], and were given priority in the line, would people still scream corruption? They definitely would, if there was no explanation given of why someone suddenly got serviced out of turn.

In your specific case, the increased transparency [given by your explanation] shows that "corruption" is too general a term, and the specific social force at play here was nepotism. While nepotism definitely doesn't explain away all instances of corruption, it is a much older and more fundamental social force than financial bribery, and might help show that the various forms of corruption are probably older than history and maybe also older than money.