L&T Sees No Significant Impact From World Bank Debarment

Engineering and infrastructure giant L&T today said the World Bank’s six-month sanction against it would not have any significant impact on its business and the group has taken necessary measures to prevent recurrence of any such incident.

The World Bank has barred Larsen & Toubro (L&T) from doing any business with it or the projects funded by it for 6 months, after finding that an executive of the Indian conglomerate had indulged in a fraud.

When contacted, an L&T Group spokesperson told PTI that a junior employee in medical equipment business had falsified some customer testimonials and submitted them in support of an offer. “On discovery of the misrepresentation, the employee was confronted with the fact and he resigned from the company. L&T has since divested the medical equipment business,” the spokesperson said.

“Based on the incident, preventive measures were tightened across the L&T Group to prevent recurrence of such incidents. We do not expect that these sanctions will have any significant impact on our business,” he added.

The matter pertains to a bid submitted by L&T in 2008 through Regional Business Head of its Medical Equipment and Systems unit to a World Bank-financed project in Tamil Nadu. The World Bank said in its sanction order that L&T’s ineligibility would continue across the entire World Bank group and has been imposed on L&T “for fraudulent practices” as per the bank’s Procurement Guidelines against Fraud and Corruption.

The debarment will continue till September 6, making L&T ineligible for being awarded contracts for any World Bank- funded projects, from receiving any loan proceeds made by the Bank or participating in any Bank-financed project.

During the debarment period, L&T as well as any of the entities controlled directly or indirectly by it can’t be nominated even subcontractor, consultant, manufacturer, supplier or even service provider to an otherwise eligible firm being awarded a World Bank-financed project.