The COVID-19 pandemic devastation seemed to have not deterred fraudulent business practices, with a company from Singapore trying to dispatch millions of substandard Chinese KN95 masks to India in 2021 by forging a third-party Inspection Certificate.
This was discovered by the dispatch inspection team of Hindustan Life Care Limited (HLL) and the bank guarantee of the supplier worth $9.75 million was encashed. The money is now lying in a separate account at the Indian Mission, Singapore. The issue is sub judice, noted the latest discussion paper released on Tuesday by the World Bank titled “India COVID-19 procurement: Challenges, innovations, and lessons’’.
India wasn’t the only target of fraud. The report also pointed out that 200 million substandard, soiled and second-hand medical nitrile gloves were purchased by the U.S.A from a Thailand-based company during the pandemic.
