KUALA LUMPUR: The Finance Ministry is stepping up cooperation with the Malaysia Competition Commission (MyCC) to curb any potential coordinated bidding by cartels trying to secure government tenders.
According to the transcript of the Public Accounts Committee(PAC) report on the Finance Ministry’s Briefing on Government Procurement and Contract Administration, Treasury secretary-general Datuk Johan Mahmood Merican acknowledged that it was possible for coordinated bids to occur to manipulate tender pricing thresholds when cost estimates and price bands are available publicly.
"When they submit bids en masse, they can influence the price cut-off," the transcript, released on Thursday (Dec 4), quotes Johan as telling the PAC.
"But the Finance Ministry is also trying to step up cooperation with MyCC to attempt to reduce or detect when this happens," he said in response to a concern raised by PAC member Zahir Hasan (PH-Wangsa Maju).
"We hear this, and I also have experienced this in this field. There are cartels. The cartel already knows the range given in the tender document, even plus or minus 10%.
"So when the cartel enters, (for example) 50 companies, all friends, all buddies, enter and all bid within that same range.
"In the end, the shortlist is among them. Ultimately, the winner is among them. This is not theoretical – this has really happened over the decades I have been in the contract works industry," Johan told the PAC.
