The rumors have been floating for weeks that Satyam was in trouble at the World Bank. Supposedly, it was related to security breaches.
But now the World Bank in an official clarification says it was for "providing improper benefits to Bank staff and for failing to maintain documentation to support fees charged for its subcontractors."
In return, Satyam says it is evaluating "all possible options" related to the " inappropriateness" of the World Bank statement.
Lots of questions: What really happened? Why did the Bank wait 3 months to issue that statement? Did it need to make a public statement at all (contracts get terminated all the time, but rarely are there official disclosures related to them)? Was it obligated to do so after Satyam's recent board fiasco? Will regulators jump in and review Satyam practices?
I can see why Satyam would want to cut this off - as we have seen with Siemens over last few years any regulatory review of "influencing procurement processes" can be a debilitating process.
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