Wipro serves out World Bank ‘sentence’; eligible again

Wipro, India's third-largest information technology services firm, is now once again eligible to become a vendor to the World Bank, having served out a four-year ban imposed by the multilateral lender in 2007.

''Wipro has served their full four-year sanction period (13 June 2007, to 12 June 2011) for the sanctionable practice of providing improper benefits to the Bank staff,'' a World Bank spokesperson said in Washington.

However, the company has to reapply to become a vendor of the bank, which will be decided based on the eligibility criteria and other norms.

The spokesperson said Wipro had not applied for vendor status with the Bank. ''However, should they do so, the Bank's own vendor registration process will evaluate their eligibility with an appropriate level of diligence applied to the issue of governance,'' he said.

To a query on whether Wipro is reapplying to become a vendor to the World Bank, the company merely said, ''We have always been confident of our business practices. We are happy to know we are eligible to do business with the World Bank.''

In a statement issued at the time when it got the ban notice, Wipro had said the revenues it derived from the World Bank was insignificant, at $1 million. ''Our inability to get future business from the World Bank will not adversely affect our business and results of operations,'' the company had said.