People who blow the whistle on scams or wrongdoings in companies need official protection, but regrettably there is no structure in place to encourage them to do so, feels Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid.
"Many companies (and) chartered accountants complain to me that we don't have a listener to our whistle. Where do we go and blow our whistle. This is a big problem," he told PTI.
He was replying to questions about reports that there was insider trading in Satyam.
"If we are to encourage people who have special knowledge, and in public interest should be disclosing that to someone, I think it's a very good idea.
"There are ways of protecting the identity, the interest of the whistle-blower, but we also know that we have not put anywhere in the country a structure for whistle-blowing, inviting whistle-blowers," he said.
On the reports about the Satyam deal -- a day before the scam broke out -- that Tech Mahindra was looking at a merger deal with Satyam Computer, and another suitor L&T was purchasing shares of Satyam, Khurshid asserted that there was complete transparency in the bidding process.
"You can speculate about anything, but there was a completely open and transparent bidding... Under an open transparent bidding, somebody who has a locus (standi) can always come and say that it was acceptable for such and such reasons," he said.