Government agencies are working in coordination with the Competition Council to reduce the phenomenon of collusion in government transactions and tenders by developing and defining new mechanisms and specific steps by searching for patterns and signs of collusion when organizations submit bids, as there are practices that suggest signs of collusion in tenders, noting that cases abound in the subcontracting sector and undeclared joint ventures.

Suspicions of collusion on the rise

<After identifying steps and mechanisms to limit collusion, the Competition Council revealed several examples that increase the percentage of suspicion of collusion, including in the event that the establishment is often the lowest bidder, or the existence of geographical allocation of winning bids so that some establishments submit bids that win in certain geographical areas and submit bids that do not win in other areas, and the existence of establishments that did not submit a bid on a tender that was expected to be submitted while they continued to submit a bid on a tender that was expected to win. The presence of establishments that did not submit a bid on a tender that was expected to be submitted while continuing to submit on other tenders raises the possibility of collusion, as well as the presence of establishments that withdraw their bids unexpectedly, or establishments that always submit bids but never win, and if the competitors hold regular meetings a few periods before the deadline for the tender, and if the winning bidder refuses to accept the contract and is discovered to be a subcontractor, for example.

Looking for signs of collusion

<The parties involved in identifying collusion mechanisms emphasized the need to look for signs of collusion in documents, such as the presence of similar errors in bid documents and letters submitted by different organizations, and that bids submitted by different organizations include similar handwriting or identical writing templates. Collusion can be detected through the bid documents of one organization with explicit references and that the documents contain identical estimates of the cost of a particular item, as well as many amendments added at the last minute, if competitors submit similar bids, or if the prices submitted by the bidders increase regularly.

Audit

Scrutinizing quotations

<The Competition Council seeks to look for signs of collusion through price fixing. Quotations can be used to help uncover agreement, so look for patterns that suggest that enterprises have coordinated, such as price increases that cannot be explained as cost increases, and if losing bids are significantly higher in value than the winning bid, there may have been an agreement to use a bidding scheme. It is standard practice to add 10% or more to the lowest bid, as bid prices that are higher than the cost estimate or higher than the bid can indicate collusion, especially in the case of sudden and symmetrical price increases, unexpected disappearance of usual discounts and rebates, or a large difference between the price of the winning bid and the other bids.

Monitoring suspicious behavior

The “Participating Entities” with the “Competition Council” took suspicious behaviors as one of the methods of collusion in government tenders, such as establishments meeting secretly before submitting bids, holding meetings frequently, or in the event that the establishment submits its own bid with the bids of another establishment and in the event of submitting the bid that the representative of the establishment comes with multiple bids and before the final delivery chooses one of the bids and submits it after knowing the other bidders.

The «Competition Council» stressed the importance of monitoring suspicious behaviors. The "Council" stressed that fighting collusion is among the priorities of many government bodies and authorities, but the difficulty lies in collecting sufficient information to convict, so it is necessary to cooperate between the tender holder and the Competition Council.

The "Council" emphasized that the fight against collusion is among the priorities of many government bodies and authorities.