• UOKiK has initiated three proceedings regarding bid rigging.
• We check whether Poczta Polska and the municipality of Tarnobrzeg could fall victim to such a procedure.
• Losses of these institutions could amount to over PLN 700,000.

Competition protection law prohibits competing parties from colluding to choose a winner of a bidding process. The most common form of collusion involves the competitors agreeing in advance who will submit the winning bid. Typically, when the lowest bid made by one collusion participant is awarded a contract through a process, winning bidder resigns from a contract, thereby making an ordering party to choose a higher bid made by other party to a deceitful agreement.

If a winning bidder backs out from a contract for unreliable reasons, or fails to complete the required documents, it might be a warning signal for ordering parties that a secret agreement between two or more parties was made to limit open competition. If that is the case, one should notify UOKiK, says the President of UOKiK, Marek Niechciał.

Recently, the office has initiated three proceedings regarding bid rigging. In two cases it is Poczta Polska that might have fallen a victim to a collusive tendering. The third case regards enterprises that might have set up a fraudulent scheme in a bid organized by the municipality of Tarnobrzeg.

The Poczta Polska bids

Two proceedings concern bids organized by Poczta Polska for subcontractors who were to provide courier and postal services on its behalf. The first concerns entrepreneurs from Konin in the Province of Wielkopolska. The lowest bid was submitted by an enterprise under the name Aneta Kubiaczyk AK Trans. However, despite several calls, the company did not complete the missing documentation, which meant that a contract could not be signed. In the opinion of the office, such an action was aimed at awarding the contract to an enterprise under the name Kubiaczyk Jacek Przedsiębiorstwo Usługowe, which offered a price higher by almost PLN 50 000. Poczta Polska excluded both entrepreneurs from tender procedure, suspecting bid rigging and notified the UOKiK about it.

In a bid organized in the Province of Pomeraniaa, Maria Gałka Maya Transport from Dębogórze and Endavor from Sopot could have orchestrated an act of collusion; the former entrepreneur (bid winner) backed out, therefore the latter was awarded a contract, even though the price it offered was higher by PLN 400 000.

Bids by the Tarnobrzeg municipality

The last of the recently initiated proceedings concerned a bid organized by the municipality of Tarnobrzeg for the delivery and assembly of decor walls as part of the Tarnobrzeg Industrial and Technology Park project. The lowest bid was made by an entrepreneur operating under the name Janusz Kurek Firma Budowlana J&S from Kazimierza Wielka. Once the bid results were announced, the company resigned from signing a contract. Thus, the municipality chose the company Brimat from Rzeszów, which offered a price higher by nearly PLN 315 000. UOKiK suspects that this was an act agreed upon by entrepreneurs, all the more so that later Janusz Kurek Firma Budowlana J&S became Brimat’s subcontractor.

Do you suspect bid rigging? Let UOKiK know.

Using competition restricting practices is subject a fine of up to 10% of company’s turnover. We would like to remind you about our programme to obtain information from anonymous whistle-blowers, such as former and current employees of companies violating the law. If you know anything about practices that restrict competition, please report it to UOKiK. Contact us at 22 55 60 500 or at the following e-mail address: sygnalista@uokik.gov.pl. All data on the whistle-blower programme can be found at: konkurs.uokik.gov.pl.

Additional information for the media:

UOKiK Press Office
Pl. Powstańców Warszawy 1, 00-950 Warszawa, Poland
Phone +48 695 902 088
E-mail: biuroprasowe@uokik.gov.pl
Twitter: @UOKiKgovPL