The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has issued show cause notices to three companies for prima facie in collusive bidding of Faisalabad Electric Supply Company’s (FESCO) tender to procure 3,000 units of LT TOU meters. CCP had initiated enquiry into possible collusive bidding in FESCO’s tender after reviewing details of public procurement carried out by FESCO in the past few years.
The enquiry was concluded with Enquiry Report on July 18 last week in which 3 companies were found involved in prima facie for supply of LT TOU meters and had colluded to rig the FESCO Tender number 6, on August 4 2009. The enquiry report revealed that the bidders prima facie had colluded to fix the price and divided the share of supply of LT TOU Meters procured under the FESCO Tender deliberately and have, prima facie, colluded to rig the FESCO bid in violation of the Competition Act, 2010.
The companies have been given 14 days to show cause in writing and to avail the opportunity of being heard before CCP. The CCP in its earlier enforcement orders held that collusive bidding poses serious concerns for public procurement. Due to the collusion between bidders, the cost of public procurement artificially increases and the taxpayer suffers at the end. The review was part of the CCP’s Bid Rigging Detection Program aimed at identifying and curtailing collusive bidding in public procurement.
