World Bank blacklists India's Wipro

World Bank blacklists India's Wipro: report
World Bank blacklists India's Wipro: report

01/13/2009, 22:09     [Xinhua News Agency]    


WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- In another blow to India's already-reeling technology industry, the World Bank disclosed it had barred two Indian outsourcing firms, Wipro Technologies and Megasoft Consultants Ltd., from doing work with the bank's headquarters, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

Just last month, the bank revealed it had blacklisted Satyam Computer Services Ltd. for eight years. The co-founder of Satyam, B. Ramalinga Raju, has since shocked the industry by admitting to cooking his company's books by more than 1 billion dollars, according to the report.

The World Bank said that Wipro Technologies, a unit of Wipro Ltd., had been banned in June 2007 for four years for "providing improper benefits to bank staff."

World Bank staffers were quoted as saying that the benefits included stock offered to the bank's former chief information officer, Mohammed Muhsin, who left the World Bank in 2005.

Bank officials said Satyam was also debarred because of offers of stock to Muhsin.

However, Joshua Hochberg, an attorney for Muhsin, said his client did not determine which companies were awarded contracts and the World Bank didn't find that Muhsin "interfered with Bank contracting," according to the report.