World Bank hires TCS to do Satyam's work, Wipro sees red

According to Girish S. Paranjpe, joint-CEO of Wipro's IT business, the shares offered by the company to World Bank employees were too little to amount to an inducement. "It was a goodwill gesture. We have done nothing wrong or unethical," Paranjpe said, adding that Wipro did not discuss the ban earlier as it was a World Bank policy not to discuss such investigations.

But once the bank had changed its position, Wipro thought it proper to issue a statement and clarify, Paranjpe said. "I am surprised at the timing of the statement by World Bank. This is a more than an eight year old story," he added.

"In light of the current developments, we decided it was better to disclose more rather than less," Wipro CFO Suresh Senapaty said, adding that he is not worried that Wipro stock plunged on the debarment news. "It takes time for people to come to terms with this. Once people understand the story, the stock will be back," he said.

"Let me reaffirm that Wipro was right from a legal as well as ethical standpoint. We believe what we did was right and we did it in the right manner," said Wipro chairman Azim Premji in an email to employees.

"We have always prided ourselves for setting the highest standards of business ethics in our dealings with all our stakeholders. We have built a strong culture which upholds compliance in letter and spirit. The approach was no different in this instance also," Premji said.

Satyam, the World Bank said, "was declared ineligible for contracts for providing improper benefits to Bank staff and for failing to maintain documentation to support fees charged for its subcontractors."