The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP), on Monday, imposed a Rs 10 million penalty on five companies, which have been found engaged in collusive bidding for a tender of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO).
A statement from the CCP stated that the order was following conclusion of a hearing conducted by a two member bench of CCP. The fine was imposed on Nam International, Amin Brothers Engineering, Creative Engineering, M R Electric Concern and Redco Pakistan. The alleged collusive bidding in a PESCO tender concluded that five undertakings violated Section 4 of the Competition Act, 2010 by participating in a collusive bidding arrangement in 2009 tenders. Earlier, CCP had conducted a sue motto inquiry into the matter after historical data of PESCO’s tenders was found suspicious. Collusive bidding in a particular tender numbered ADB-PESCO-06-2009 LOT III, for the procurement of 4759 High Tension Pre-stressed Concrete and 3678 Low Tension Pre-stressed Concrete poles, was seen.
The inquiry was completed vide a report on July 21, 2010, which concluded that the above mentioned five undertakings had performed a collusive bid for the tender. It was established that four out of the five undertakings had entered into a joint venture agreement to collectively bid for the tender, while the fifth submitted a cover bid to give the impression of competitive bidding.
