SINGAPORE - The competition watchdog served three companies with legal documents on Tuesday to say they illegally rigged their bids in tenders called by privately owned developments, which may lead to them being financially penalised.
Because of this collusion in the bidding process, customers were unable to obtain offers that best met their requirements and provided the best value, the watchdog said. While the companies were meant to be bidding independently, one company would request a supporting quotation from another company which it believed would be higher than its own. The second company would then give the higher quotation to the customer. This meant that the companies were able to submit a higher quotation.
Because of these arrangements between the companies, there was no competitive pressure on the companies to submit their best offers to the customers.