Bid rigging

This was a real problem in the last recession. Cost cutting tends to make it worse with less careful oversight.

As economy sours, federal government on alert for bid rigging.
CanWest News Service
Sun 31 May 2009
Byline: Mike De Souza
Dateline: OTTAWA
Source: Canwest News Service

Canada's law-enforcement agency for competition laws is warning that parts of the Harper government's multi-billion infrastructure plan could result in an increase in criminal activity and ``monkey business'' surrounding contracts awarded by public agencies and municipalities.

In an interview with Canwest News Service, a senior official at the Competition Bureau said that all public officials should be on alert for firms that make secret deals with their competitors in order to rig the bidding process for lucrative service contracts.

``Whenever there's an economic downturn, companies that have otherwise been competing well and earning profits . . . sometimes will seek to replace those competitive profits with profits through monkey business such as illegal conduct out of the Competition Act,'' said Chris Martin, the assistant deputy commissioner of competition.

James Morton
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