OXFORD publisher Macmillan Education is facing a six-year ban from taking up any contracts financed by the World Bank after the company admitted it paid bribes to secure a deal to print textbooks in south Sudan.

Chief executive of the Macmillan group, Annette Thomas, said she had brought in expert support to review the practices and procedures of Cowley-based Macmillan Education, and added "all relevant staff" would be retrained.

She said: "Our message today is clear: we will not tolerate any form of potentially unlawful behaviour.

"We are deeply shocked to have discovered these issues, and are sorry for the harm that such behaviour will have done.

"Macmillan is a business with strong values rooted in education and development, which we hold dear. We will work tenaciously to protect it from bad conduct."

She added: "There is no suggestion that these concerns have affected any of Macmillan’s other principal businesses, and it is the case that they are confined to a limited part of our education business.

"Despite this, we take the situation very seriously and have been co-operating fully with the authorities."

Macmillan declined to comment further.

The "corrupt payments" were made in a bidding process for an education project supported by a World Bank-managed fund in the African region, the World Bank said in a statement.

Macmillan has its international publishing and sales operations in the former Potato Marketing Board building in Between Towns Road, Cowley.

Its offices also house editorial, production, picture research and rights teams for international English language textbooks, as well as the local publishing teams who develop products for Africa.

The World Bank Group said it had debarred Macmillan Ltd from Bank-financed contracts for six years "in the wake of the company's admission of bribery payments relating to a Trust Fund-supported education project in Southern Sudan".

The ban was originally set in place for eight years, but was reduced to six after Macmillan admitted to the bribery.

It may be reduced by a further three years if the company continues to cooperate with the World Bank's "compliance monitoring program".