Tomasz Chróstny, President of the Office for Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK), has initiated three proceedings after the office received information on possible collusive tenders between contractors providing renovation and construction services. Chróstny brought charges against three entities from the Wielkopolskie Voivodship.
The first proceeding relates to possible collusion between entrepreneurs: Antczak Sprzątanie Remonty Handel from Kalisz and Tech-Fen from Gostyczyna. The second case concerns an illegal agreement between these entities and the company Kamastra from Kalisz. In the third case, Tomasz Chróstny brought charges against the companies: Antczak Sprzątanie Remonty Handel and Kamastra.
The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection suspects that the purpose of the entrepreneurs’ actions was the selection of the more expensive offer by the ordering party. When their offers were the most advantageous, the winner of the tender did not supplement its offer with the documents requested by the contracting authority or inform it of its decision to withdraw from the procedure. Then the tender was won by the other participant in the collusion who submitted a more expensive offer.
„I would like to remind you that entrepreneurs participating in tenders should calculate their bids on their own. Jointly setting them with other entities, collusion in order for the ordering party to choose the more expensive offer is illegal and may incur sanctions up to 10% of annual turnover. The use of the tender procedure by budgetary units is aimed at rational spending of public funds. Collusive bid-rigging by entities bidding for contracts is therefore not only a violation of applicable competition protection regulations, but also detrimental to the Polish economy.” – said the president of UOKiK.
