A Defense Ministry internal panel considering procurement system reforms issued a report Friday urging that middlemen be bypassed and encouraging direct contracts with equipment manufacturers.
According to the report, coupled with other cost-cutting measures, this would reduce procurement costs by 15 percent in five years from fiscal 2007 to fiscal 2011, which ends in March 2012, while cutting defense equipment traders would help the ministry combat corruption among its bureaucrats.
The panel was called last October in response to the corruption scandal involving former Vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya, who was charged with bribery last November.
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