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All SA construction majors 'involved' in collusion, price-fixing – Patel

11th April 2013

By: Natalie Greve

Creamer Media Contributing Editor Online

  

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Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel has said that all the major South African civil engineering and construction companies currently active in the sector have been involved in infrastructure-related collusion and price-fixing.

“This problem is huge and pervasive in the infrastructure space,” he said at the inaugural Project and Construction Management Professions Conference on Thursday.

The State reportedly lost billions of rands through large-scale collusion and price-fixing by private sector companies during several past infrastructure projects, which instigated investigations by the Competition Commission into several completed public build projects.

These enquiries, which included investigations into the Gautrain project and several stadium developments, uncovered substantial evidence of collusion and price fixing by private sector participants, the Minister noted.

In cases involving critical projects, a number of companies came forward to acknowledge their involvement in the unlawful practises, Patel added.

“We have received about 400 admissions of incidents of collusion by companies in the sector,” he commented.

South African Council for the Project and Construction Management Professions (SACPCMP) president Professor Raymond Nkado said he was “shocked” that registered individual members of the SACPCMP had been found to have been involved.

“As a council, we have decided that we might take additional disciplinary action against these individuals,” he said.

Fast-Track Process
Based on the evidence gleaned from the commission’s investigations, which indicated the pervasiveness of the involvement by private companies, it was decided to introduce a “fast-track settlement process”, which would avoid lengthy legal processes that could persist for up to eight years, and which Patel said could potentially distract the project management process.

“We approached the industry and said we were prepared to put a voluntary disclosure process on the table, which would bring this to a conclusion expeditiously. In return, what is required is full disclosure, a commitment to end the cartels and an acceptance that the law must take its course,” he explained.

Once the disclosure process had been completed and admission of guilt received, the commission would then determine appropriate fines or penalties related to the value of the project. 

Several such processes between the Competition Commission and private companies were currently under way, with most in the final stages, where the extent of the penalty was being determined in cases where organisations were “improperly enriched”.

Patel added that the first company to come forward and admit collusion would receive preferential treatment in terms of the penalty levied.

“We also take into account the extent of cooperation, so that there is an incentive to come clean. However, these companies will still have to pay substantial penalties as prescribed by the Competition Act,” he cautioned.

In cases where investigations implicated public servants, this information would be referred to law enforcement agencies.

There would be public disclosure once settlements had been reached.

Incentivisation

Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi added that the findings of the investigation challenged the common perception that corruption and malgovernance was only pervasive in the public sector.

“The opinion that only government has such problems has been proved incorrect. There are huge problems in the private sector and we must expose them,” he said, encouraging the private sector to engage in “self reflection”.

Nxesi noted that key to the prevention of corruption in infrastructure projects was the establishment of a strong financial system, transparent procurement processes and incentivisation.

Moreover, Patel advised that the competition authorities had used the findings of the investigations to identify networks and channels used by companies in collusive practises and had identified the lead players and managers.

This would be used to develop internal preventive controls to reduce the opportunity for future collusion.

In addition, Patel said the CEO of any company awarded an infrastructure tender would be required to sign an “integrity pact” that committed them to competitive and noncorrupt practises and to create a culture in their organisation in which anticompetitive behaviour was discouraged.

“This will require executives to commit personal responsibility and liability,” he said.

The integrity pact was currently being piloted in a number of infrastructure tenders and would be fully implemented throughout the course of this year.

Patel said it was critical that the new phase of national infrastructure development not be characterised by similar high levels of collusion and price-fixing.

“Companies will have to make an important calculation. In the past, they thought collusion was a no-brainer; that they would secure the contract and walk away with the money. Now they see that we have developed the investigatory capacity to track the evidence down and to bring companies to book. That is the most important breakthough for us,” he said.

Edited by Chanel de Bruyn
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor Online

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