New Delhi: On Friday, a major US construction and consultancy firm, Louis Berger International, admitted paying nearly a million dollars as bribes – including an unspecified sum to an unidentified minister – in connection with a public sector water project in the state of Goa in August 2010.

Who the minister was is as yet unknown. But under the terms of the ‘deferred prosecution agreement’ LBI agreed to in a deal with the US Justice Department, the firm is obliged to cooperate with “foreign law enforcement and regulatory authorities and agencies” in any investigation of the company, its affiliates, subsidiaries, and employees past or present in relation to the offences mentioned in the indictment.

This means that if the Indian government requests the US Justice Department for further information from LBI in order to be able to identify and prosecute not just the minister and other officials who took bribes but all those who served as a conduit for the transaction, Louis Berger International would be obliged to turn over the records it kept.

The Morristown, New Jersey-based company had been indicted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for paying $3.9 million in bribes to government officials in India, Kuwait, Indonesia and Viet Nam between 1998 and 2010.

The illegal payments in India centred around a $311 million water and sanitation project funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in partnership with the Government of India and the Government of Goa. The project was conceived in 2005 and got off the ground two years later. The Congress party controlled both governments at the time. Filipe Nery Rodrigues held the Water Resources portfolio in Goa continuously from 2005 to 2012, first under Chief Minister Pratapsing Rane and then Digamber Kamat. Churchill Alemao held the Public Works Department portfolio and has already been arraigned in a corruption case arising from his stewardship of the ministry. At the Centre, Pavan Kumar Bansal was Water Resources Minister from 2009-2012.

The FBI’s 11-page indictment provides no indication of what portfolio the bribed minister held or whether he was part of the Goa or Central cabinet.