Bid Rigging "Difficult to Prove"

At the end of last week Simon Williams, the director of cartel investigations at the body leading the Office of Fair Trading’s inquiry into construction tendering malpractice, has said OFT will not seek to prove formally the effect, if any, of bid rigging.

He says general research suggests that price inflation from cartels may be in the region of 10%, but acknowledges that this is not specifically related to construction.Adding: “The extent, if any, of price inflation will clearly be circumstance-specific.”

The organisation had previously suggested that cover pricing and bid rigging had added up to 10% of the bill for public sector contracts. This led to reports that the taxpayer had been overcharged by as much as £4bn.

This will prove a steback to local authorities that are seeking to claim damages from contractors named by the OFTon their recent list of the 112 companies it was investigating in April.

Contractors involved in the investigation must submit oral evidence to the OFT by this week.