Collusion and bid rigging in the construction industry: case studies from Poland

Abstract

Polish economy experienced significant changes during the past 30 years. System transformation that began in the 1980's and was enhanced by Poland's entry to the European Union in 2004 significantly influenced economic development. Apart from tough history experiences, they formed the shape of national economy which can be observed nowadays. It was a long and difficult process. During political and economic rapid changes greater numbers of price collusions and other illegal practices can be observed than during the stable development of national economy. Authors selected and reviewed the most important anti-competitive cases in the construction industry from the past 30 years in Poland. The review includes not only cases that were officially justified and penalized-like the collusion of portland cement big producers-but also cases of collusion suspicion on highway and express roads that ended with acquittal court verdicts.

Review of collusion and bid rigging detection methods in the construction industry

“…Detecting anti-competitive agreements is difficult and requires vast interdisciplinary knowledge, experience, appropriate tool selection, availability of selected data, sometimes even a long term market observation [33]. The construction industry is particularly vulnerable for the occurrence of bid rigging (recurrent collusion) ( [34,35]) and other types of anti-competitive agreements because of the high values of contracts and the existing structure of oligopolistic market.…”

Implications of Bid Rigging Practices in Small Island Developing States: A Case Study

“…This report presents a how to detect collusive behaviours throughout the procurement process, and how to maintain the public procurement staff prepared to fight collusion. Foremny et al (2018) researched the Polish economy and the significant changes that it experienced during the developing stage that occurred within the past 30 years. The authors noted that during political and economic changes, greater numbers involving price collusions and other illegal practices were observed when compared to the stable development of national economy.…”

A Machine Learning Approach for Flagging Incomplete Bid-Rigging Cartels

“…Cartel formation remains a pervasive problem and has been considered in a range of studies. See for instance the Swedish asphalt cartel described in Bergman et al (2020), collusion among seafood processors in the US (Abrantes-Metz et al 2006), bid rigging in public procurement auctions for construction works in Japan (Ishii 2014), in Poland (Foremny et al 2018), in Canada (Clark et al 2018) and in the US (Porter and Zona 1993;Feinstein et al 1985) and bid rigging for school milk contracts in Ohio (Porter and Zona 1999), Florida and Texas (Pesendorfer 2000). To enhance the fight against cartels, the OECD recommends competition agencies to promote pro-active methods for uncovering conspiracies, as such methods may help to discover cartels where leniency is unlikely to be sought (OECD 2013).…”