Relationships between Competition Agencies and Public Procurement Bodies

The aim of the Chapter of ICN Anti-Cartel Enforcement Manual is to provide competition agencies with practical tools for building constructive relationships with public procurement bodies in order to ensure free and fair competition in public bidding processes. These tools are intended to facilitate the efficiency of public procurement as well as to improve the competitive environment in relevant markets. Pursuant to this goal, the Chapter touches upon issues related to the organization of procurement processes in a competitive way, including signs of bid-rigging, behavioral screens, legitimate and non-legitimate forms of cooperation between bidders, leniency programs, and several other topics. However, given the existence of academic literature in this area, the Chapter will focus on these issues in the context of cooperation between competition agencies and public procurement bodies. Practical examples are based on the replies to a Questionnaire that was circulated to the ICN Cartel Working Group SG2 Members in 2014.