Collusion in public procurement consists in anticompetitive agreements among tenderers to increase prices, restrict volume and/or lower quality. It is commonly referred to as bid rigging and is a flagrant violation of competition law. Effective prevention and detection of bid rigging requires:
- good co-operation between competition authorities and contracting authorities as well as other public bodies;
- adequate reporting of suspicious bidder conduct by procurement officials to the competent competition authorities; and
- high awareness of the risks and costs of bid rigging by the private sector.
This 2-year project, starting in September 2024, aims at helping countries improve bid-rigging prevention and detection. The project is funded by by the European Union via the Technical Support Instrument.
