The defence minister announced a policy on legalizing lobbyists or middlemen representing various arms manufacturers across the world will be ready in the next four to five weeks as part of easing up working with the government and defence manufacturers.
"The draft is ready, it will now need approval from the Defence Acquisition Committee, which is expected in the next meeting, and the process of giving it legal sanctity will follow."
This is part of what we talked about, /u/RajaRajaC, yesterday. There is one argument that goes saying that this would legalize corruption. And there is another that says that it will eliminate it. I really do not know how effective this would be ...
It would help, no doubt, by reducing incentive for a middleman, if he were on a fixed retainer, regardless of the outcome of the deal. On the other hand, would a 'bonus' (like 'final' instalment of fees) to the agent be permitted, if the deal were to come through? The company would be at liberty to say that it has nothing to do with the profit and get past this problem, if we were to take this example.
The hope is that the cost of a legal payment to the middleman, passed on to buyer through invoicing for the purchase would be lesser than the cost of incentivising corrupting of officials. It is a practical and reasonable assumption and, more importantly, can be justified.
Regardless of the way you look at it, the system should certainly become more transparent and open.
“These people need to be bona fide representatives of their companies or a corporate entity in their own right. Make MNCs legally responsible for them. If there is transparency, a lot of things will fall into place,”
This should be the central theme of the move.