INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - 1^st JANUARY - TO - 15^th JANUARY - 2009

TCS BAGS SATYAM'S WORLD BANK PROJECTS

In an unusually delayed disclosure; the World Bank said it has awarded Tata Consultancy Services a chunk of the projects that were earlier given to Satyam Computer. The Bank had barred Satyam from doing business with it for eight years beginning September 2008, months before the IT company was shaken by a Rs 7,800 crore accounting fraud at home. "We have hired Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to do much of the IT work that Satyam used to do," a World Bank spokesperson said. The projects were awarded to TCS the same month through competitive bidding -- an indication that the Bank is not specifically targeting Indian IT companies. The Bank recently disclosed names of companies worldwide that have been barred from doing business with it for violating fraud and corruption guidelines. The list of companies included India's third largest software exporter Wipro and another company, Megasoft. When contacted, a TCS spokesperson said, "We bagged the contract from World Bank a long time back... early September last year."