World Bank to reveal vendor names at time of debarrment

Drawing flak from different quarters for delay in revealing its ban on Satyam Computer, the World Bank has said it will now make public its decision as soon as it decides to debar a vendor from doing business with it.

Drawing flak from different quarters for delay in revealing its ban on Satyam Computer, the World Bank has said it will now make public its decision as soon as it decides to debar a vendor from doing business with it.

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"Announcements will be made at the time of a finding that a vendor is debarred, or in other words, determined to be a non-responsible vendor," a World Bank official told PTI in an emailed statement from Washington.

The World Bank temporarily suspended Satyam Computer in February 2008 and, after a detailed probe into the matter, the Indian IT firm was debarred in September.

However, the ban on Satyam was publicly disclosed by World Bank only in December last year -- leading to criticism of the international lender for keeping this information under wraps for several months.

Satyam, where its founder Ramalinga Raju has admitted cooking up accounts for several past years, has been banned for eight years by World Bank for providing "improper benefits" to the bank staff and for failing to maintain records relating to fees charged for sub-contractors.

The scam, came to light early this year, has been billed as the biggest ever corporate fraud in India.