OFT bid rigging fines to be announced

The Office of Fair trading will tomorrow fine contractors found guilty of bid-rigging and cover pricing.The Government watchdog will also order public sector clients to draw a line under the inquiry and not penalise any further contractors named in the bid rigging inquiry.

During the investigation, the OFT visited the premises of 57 firms and received 37 leniency applications in the investigation, and all other parties received an offer of a reduced financial penalty, which led to over 40 further companies subsequently admitting participation in some bid rigging activities. 112 firms named in the enquiry have already gone out of business

Construction firms who co-operated with the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) bid-rigging inquiry are likely to face much lower fines than predicted when the scandal broke 18 months ago, according to reports.

The announcement tomorrow will schedule all the fines and discounts for co-operation.