Ernst & Young Kenya has been banned from participating in projects funded by the World Bank Group for the next two and a half years after it failed to disclose a conflict of interest while working on four contracts under the SCORE and PFM II projects and the involvement of an agent in those contracts.
This is part of a settlement agreement in which the company admits guilt for sanctionable practices and agrees to comply with specified integrity conditions in order to be released from the debarment.
As a result, the debarment means Ernst & Young Kenya and any affiliated companies, are now ineligible to participate in projects and operations financed by the World Bank Group.
The company is also required to establish and implement an integrity compliance program based on the principles outlined in the WBG Integrity Compliance Guidelines and commit to continuing full cooperation with the WBG Integrity Vice Presidency.
According to World Bank Group, the settlement agreement allows for a reduced debarment period due to the company’s admission of misconduct, cooperation, elements of its existing integrity compliance program, and voluntary remedial actions, including disciplinary measures against the staff involved in the misconduct and voluntarily refraining from bidding for WBG-financed contracts during the settlement agreement negotiations.
The debarment of Ernst & Young Kenya is subject to cross-debarment by other multilateral development banks under the Agreement for Mutual Enforcement of Debarment Decisions signed on April 9, 2010.
Another Kenyan company that faced World Bank debarment is Techno Brain Kenya, which was debarred for 28 months in 2020. Techno Brain Kenya and Techno Brain UAE collaborated to obtain and manipulate confidential bidding documents to influence the awarding of a contract in their favour.
Techno Brain Kenya was awarded the contract despite its bid not meeting tender requirements, leading to a considerable reduction in the scope of work provided under the contract.
