FTC : 4 Sapporo officials rigged bids
Written by Writer on Thursday, October 30th, 2008
FTC: 4 Sapporo officials rigged bids
The Yomiuri Shimbun
The Fair Trade Commission has notified the Sapporo municipal government of the names of four of the city’s officials involved in alleged bid-rigging of 33 public works projects ordered by the municipality between 2003 and 2005.
The government antimonopoly body also has demanded the city take remedial action to prevent a recurrence of similar malpractice.
Following a search of the city government premises in July, the FTC determined that the four officials decided in advance which firms would be the successful bidders for sewerage project-related electrical engineering work worth a total of about 12 billion yen.
The FTC took the actions Wednesday, based on the law to prevent bid-rigging at the initiative of government officials.
It first applied the law in March 2007, in the case of a bid-rigging scandal within the Construction and Transport Ministry that concerned floodgate construction projects. This latest case is the fifth time the FTC has applied the law.
Also Wednesday, the FTC ordered eight heavy electrical machinery manufacturers that received the orders to pay surcharges totalling 425.3 million yen. Applying the Antimonopoly Law, the FTC also instructed the companies to take measures to end their illegal restrictive trading practices.
The companies subject to punishment are Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Hitachi, Ltd., Meidensha Corp., Toyo Electric Mfg. Co., Nissin Electric Co., Yasukawa Electric Corp., Fuji Electric Systems Co.–known as Fuji Electric Holdings Co. until September 2003–and Shinko Electric Co.
Toshiba Corp. also was involved in the bid-rigging, but escaped punishment because it admitted violating the law before an FTC search of its premises.
According to the FTC, the highest-ranking official involved at the time of the alleged bid-rigging was the former head of the construction department in the Sapporo waterworks bureau–known since 2005 as the construction bureau. That official retired in March 2004.
The other three officials were another former head of the construction department; the former facilities construction section chief; and the former head of the public finance bureau’s construction administration office, who was head of the construction section at the time of the alleged violations.
Between April 2003 and December 2005, the four allegedly rigged bids by telling the heavy electrical machinery manufacturers which of them would receive orders, before the city put a tender out.
Organizations subject to the FTC order to take remedial action must create a manual to prevent the recurrence of bid-rigging, and establish a check system after conducting an in-house investigation to find out why and to what extent employees became involved in the malpractice.
The organizations also are obliged to announce details of measures they have taken. The FTC has the authority to voice its opinion if it believes the measures are insufficient.
(Oct. 31, 2008)
