Zero tolerance to corruption: Govt on bribery allegations against Amazon lawyers

Stressing that it has zero tolerance towards corruption, the Centre has said that allegations about Amazon legal’s representatives bribing officials will be probed.

“As far as the government of India is concerned there is ZERO tolerance towards corruption of ANY kind in the government,” NDTV quoted government officials as saying.

The development comes a day after it was reported that Amazon has begun an investigation against its legal representatives for allegedly bribing officials of the Indian government. The e-commerce giant also said that its senior corporate counsel Rahul Sundaram has been sent on leave on the matter.

The government, on its part, has asked Amazon to punish those responsible.

“Amazon has been spending more than ₹8,500 crore in legal fees. It’s time to think where all it is going. The whole system seems to work on bribes and that is not the best of business practices,” government sources were quoted as saying.

Amazon initiated a probe into the matter after being tipped off by a whistleblower. A report in The Morning Context, which broke the news, said that a part of the legal fees paid to the company’s lawyers were “funneled into bribing government officials”.

Amazon didn’t confirm the allegations neither denied it, but said has zero tolerance for corruption.

“We have zero tolerance for corruption. We take allegations of improper actions seriously, investigate them fully, and take appropriate action. We are not commenting on specific allegations or the status of any investigation at this time,” the global online portal was quoted as saying.

A source told PTI that US companies take whistleblower tip offs seriously, “especially those related to payment of bribes to foreign government officials in order to retain or obtain business.”

Meanwhile, The Confederation of All India Traders has urged Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal to initiate a CBI probe into the matter while also demanding for the erring officials to be named and punished.