World Bank led U.N up the garden path in tie-up with Satyam
13 Jan 2009, 1651 Hrs

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Washington, Jan.13 The World Bank failed to tell the rest of the world that it had banned now-imploding Satyam Computer Services last February from further business following a corruption probe, and thus allowed the U.N. to enter into a six million dollar deal for technology services with Satyam as recently as this July.

According to a FOX News report, details of the contentious contract are prominently displayed on a U.N. Procurement Department website, commonly accessed by procurement officials from across the U.N. system.

The contract award notice proclaims that Satyam was hired effective July 18, 2008, through July 13, 2013, to work on "E/Staffing/Talent Management Software, Implementation and Training Services" - all within the sensitive U.N. human resources management system.

What made the contract a shock was that it came into force five months after the World Bank - the world's largest anti-poverty lender and a key member of the U.N. system - banned Satyam as a supplier for eight years.

At the time of the investigation and banning, Satyam had been declared a "strategic partner" with the World Bank in all of its information processing activities, and had received hundreds of millions of dollars in World Bank business since the partnership was announced in 2002.

Late Sunday, the Bank suddenly put on its website announcements of Satyam's banning, along with two other software companies that were banned in 2007 for improper activities.

FOX News' examination of the deal has revealed that the institution kept its sanctions against Satyam and the other banned firms secret from the rest of the United Nations.

The World Bank and other U.N. institutions have another place to inform each other of important anti-corruption decisions like the Satyam ban. They all sit together on a 28-member committee known as the U.N. Inter-Agency Procurement Working Group. According to a mission statement for IAPWG, adopted in 2006, the group exists "in order to promote the strategic importance of Procurement and Supply Chain Management in program and service delivery in a transparent and accountable manner. (ANI)