KUALA LUMPUR: Eight companies have been slapped with financial penalties totalling RM1,548,192 for engaging in bid rigging involving government procurement, says the Malaysia Competition Commission (MyCC).
MyCC chief executive officer Iskandar Ismail announced the decision and noted that the eight companies were involved in four different IT-related projects worth RM1,925,365.90 which were procured by the National Academy of Arts, Culture and Heritage of Malaysia (Aswara).
Iskandar said the four projects in this case consisted of three Request for Quotations (RFQ) and one tender from 2015 to 2016.
“Upon a thorough review of evidence and careful deliberation of the written and oral representations by the eight enterprises, we concluded that their conduct constituted an infringement under Section 4(1) read together with Section 4(2) of the Competition Act 2010.
“This revealed that all enterprises are guilty of infringing the Competition Act 2010 by engaging in a series of anti-competitive bid rigging agreements alongside concerted practices involving Aswara procurement projects,” he told a press conference yesterday.
The eight companies found guilty are Tuah Packet Sdn Bhd, Caliber Interconnects Sdn Bhd, Aliran Digital Sdn Bhd, ViaMED Sdn Bhd, Novatis Resources Sdn Bhd, Silver Tech Synergy Sdn Bhd, Venture Nucleus Sdn Bhd and Basenet Technology Sdn Bhd.
He added that the “alarm bells” first rang in 2017 when a Tuah Packet representative attended an RFQ presentation for an Aswara project worth RM467,727 which Caliber had won the year prior.
“This prompted Aswara to raise the issue with MyCC, with our investigations later revealing that there were actually two cartels involved during the RFQ process in 2016.
“They consisted of one cartel belonging to Tuah Packet and Caliber with the other being from Novatis, Basenet, Venture Nucleus and Silver Tech,” he said.
Iskandar added that their investigations revealed the primary modus operandi of the cartels which were name sharing to submit tenders and participation in RFQ to Aswara, noting that Tuah Packet was involved in all four cases of bid rigging.
Iskandar said the fines imposed on the guilty parties were based on their annual revenue rate for the years they were involved in the bid rigging process.
