'Agents are the achilles heel' - John Githongo, former Permanent Secretary for Governance and Ethics, Government of Kenya, on efforts to fight corruption in the defence sector.

The use of agents or middlemen is more widespread in defence than in any other industry. The identities and activities of agents are largely kept secret by firms, who regard such information as “commercially sensitive”.

Whilst representatives have legitimate tasks in assisting companies to operate in unfamiliar cultures and styles of government, there is no doubt that the use of middlemen also facilitates the payment of bribes to decision makers. Nearly every case of defence sector bribery shows that an agent is the conduit through which bribes were paid.

Said Aburish, who acted as an intermediary and went on to write a book on the role of commissions in the Middle East, describes the intermediary's role as:  "Providing the company with an advantage over its competitors by securing the co-operation of someone in power, or with power and influence, to promote its interests… in return for a commission/bribe which is shared by the intermediary and his political mentor.”

Overcoming Corruption amongst Agents & Brokers

Due diligence on agents

There is now a well-established methodology for conducting due diligence on agents, originally initiated by US companies seeking to comply with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. References to such programmes can be found on the websites of major companies.

There are also organisations that specialise in doing due diligence on agents as a specialist service.  See, for example, TRACE International.

Clear contracts

Agents should have written contracts, specified duties, a clear and defensible basis for remuneration, and regular – annual – re-approval by the company legal department.

Transparency

It is indefensible for the identities of agents to remain secret. If agents are to be used then they should be disclosed, preferably publicly.

In major contracts, Defence Integrity Pacts should be used by the government. These can also require additional disclosure, for instance of the agent’s contract and the basis of remuneration for all agents being used.

Serious problem environments

There are countries and regions where the use of intermediaries, both official and unofficial, is endemic.  In some, it is required by law to use an agent from the country. In such environments we believe that a reformist government needs to set out some more fundamental steps. John Githongo of Kenya has one such suggestion on how arms importing African governments can deal most effectively with agents who seek to win contracts through bribery: 'An interesting approach would be to restrict agents travelling by retracting visas. Agents are always presented as a huge problem, but it’s actually a very small group of people orchestrating these arms deals, at least in Africa.'

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