WB debars five Indian entities and an individual

New Delhi, Jan 12 (PTI) Even before the dust settled on
the controversy involving Satyam's debarment, the World Bank
Monday revealed that action has been taken against a total of
five entities in India, including Wipro Technologies, and an
individual.

The action was initiated against these entities and
individual as they were found to have "violated the fraud and
corruption provisions of the Procurement Guidelines or the
Consultant Guidelines," besides offering improper benefits to
Bank staff.

Megasoft became the third Indian software vendor to have
attracted the Bank's ire, while Nestor Pharmaceuticals and Gap
International were non-IT entities. An individual Surendra
Singh was barred from doing business with the Bank for
violating guidelines.

While Wipro was barred for four years beginning June 2007
for "providing improper benefits to Bank staff", Megasoft
barred for an identical period beginning December 2007 for
"participating in a joint venture with Bank staff while also
conducting business with the Bank."

In a statement late Sunday night, the World Bank said
that it decided to "make public the names of all the companies
that have been debarred from receiving direct contracts from
the Bank group under its corporate procurement programme.

"This change was made in the interest of fairness and
transparency... From now on the Bank group would publicly list
names of companies debarred from its corporate procurement."

Commenting on the World Bank action, Wipro said in a
statement this morning: "Our inability to get future business
from World Bank will not adversely affect our business and
results of operations."

Megasoft officials too said that the debarment will not
have no revenue implication for the company.

Earlier, Satyam, which was debarred for eight years
beginning September 2008, had demanded an apology for making
public its name and withdrawal of what it called
"inappropriate" statement by the Bank. The Bank had refused to
apologise.

In the list of "ineligible" firms released by the Bank,
over a 100 companies or individuals - some of the
Indian-origin - have been barred temporarily or life.

The list includes Gurpreet Singh Malik, Vikram Deepak
Gursahaney, Kamal Sharda and Sharda Impex (UK Ltd) in Nigeria,
as well as Labh Singh Gill, Labh Universal, Pradeep Menon,
Shivshanker Pre Nair and Pradeep S Nair in the UK and Mandeep
S Sandhu in the US. All these entities are permanently barred.

In 2000, in connection with its IPO of American
Depository Shares (ADS) in the United States, Wipro offered a
commonly utilised and SEC-approved Directed Share Program
(DSP), which allowed employees and clients to purchase ADSs at
the IPO price.

The programme's object was to involve employees and
customers with the public offering to expand the recognition
and brand. A majority of the shares sold under the DSP were
allotted to Wipro employees.

Pursuant to this, Wipro representatives offered the World
Bank, through its Chief Information Officer (CIO) and senior
staff, participation in the program, Wipro said in statement.

All participants in the programme signed a conflict-of-
interest statement, saying that their purchase did not violate
any ethics or policies of their company.

However, the World Bank had determined in June 2007 the
company would be ineligible for the international lender's
direct contracts up to 2011, citing a conflict of interest
policy.

In case of a debarred individual, the ineligibility
extends to any firm which the debarred individual directly or
indirectly controlled, the Bank said in its statement.

The UK and Indonesia account for a significant number of
debarred entities, while a number of entities debarred are
from Sweden, Nigeria and the US. PTI