WASHINGTON, June 18, 2025-The World Bank Group today announced the 18-month debarments of two companies incorporated in St. Lucia: Computer and Electrical Services Ltd., an IT equipment and supplies retailer and Darcheville Construction Equipment Sales Ltd., a construction equipment and parts. The debarments are in connection with related fraudulent practices that occurred under the Unleashing the Blue Economy of the Caribbean Project in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
The project aims to strengthen the enabling environment for the blue economy, economic recovery, and resilience of selected coastal assets in participating countries, and to provide immediate and effective response to an eligible emergency. According to the facts of the case, the two companies share a common beneficial owner and are part of the same corporate group. When bidding for a World Bank-financed contract for the supply of refrigerated trucks, the two companies failed to disclose their conflict of interest with each other. These were fraudulent practices according to the World Bank's Anti-Corruption Framework.
The debarments make Computer and Electrical Services Ltd. and Darcheville Construction Equipment Sales Ltd. ineligible to participate in projects and operations financed by institutions of the World Bank Group. They are part of two settlements under which the companies acknowledge responsibility for their underlying sanctionable practices and agree to meet specified corporate compliance conditions as a condition for their releases from debarment.
Those conditions include commitments from the companies to develop and implement corporate ethics training programs that reflect the principles set out in the World Bank Group Integrity Compliance Guidelines. The settlement agreements also provide for reduced periods of debarment in light of the companies' cooperation and voluntary remedial actions, and their continued commitment to fully cooperate with the World Bank Group Integrity Vice Presidency.
The debarments of Computer and Electrical Services Ltd. and Darcheville Construction Equipment Sales Ltd. qualify for cross-debarment by other multilateral development banks (MDBs) under the Agreement for Mutual Enforcement of Debarment Decisions that was signed on April 9, 2010.
