World Bank debars U.S. technology company
The World Bank debarred an American technology company Wednesday for 12 months for “collusive practices” involving a national ID project in Bangladesh.
Minneapolis-based Entrust Datacard Corporation (EDC) and its controlled affiliates are ineligible to participate in World Bank-financed projects during the 12-month debarment.
EDC
accessed and changed confidential draft bid specifications related to a contract to provide personalization machines used in the ID card production and accessed questions from other bidders to narrow competition.
These actions amount to collusive practices, the World Bank said.
Privately-held ECD was ultimately the supplier on the contract.
The $219 million project in Bangladesh
was designed to establish a secure, accurate and reliable national ID system.
In the settlement agreement, EDC acknowledged responsibility, made voluntary remedial and corrective actions, and cooperated with the World Bank.
EDC’s 12-month debarment
will be followed by a further period of conditional non-debarment of up to nine months.
During the conditional non-debarment,
EDC will be eligible to participate in World Bank-financed projects as long as it complies with the settlement agreement.
The FCPA Blog
http://www.fcpablog.com/blog/2019/7/17/world-bank-debars-us-technology-company.html