Questions that might reveal the payment of bribes and kickbacks include:
- Do you know or suspect, or have you heard, that kickbacks are being paid?
Questions to identify parties and potential witnesses include:
- Please identify all persons and organizations that might be involved in suspect transactions, including all:
- Contractors
- Subcontractors
- Suppliers
- Agents or middlemen
- Project or government officials
- Have any bidders filed protests or complaints or voiced suspicions?
- Are any unnecessary or questionable agents or middlemen involved in any contracts?
- Are any agents or middlemen paid unreasonably high fees?
- Do any project or government officials refer contractors to certain suppliers, subcontractors or agents?
Questions about selection and performance include:
- Are questionable selection methods, e.g., unjustified sole source awards, employed?
- Do any contractors charge unreasonably high prices, which are accepted by project or government officials?
- Do any contractors receive an unusually high volume of contracts?
- Is the quality of any contractor’s work consistently unsatisfactory, but accepted by project or government officials?
- Do any contractors consistently miss delivery or completion dates without penalty?
- Do any contractors receive questionable, or an unusually high number of, change orders?
Questions about the behavior of the project or government officials include:
- Do any project or government officials:
- Give favorable treatment to certain contractors?
- Routinely ignore or excuse poor or late service by particular contractors?
- Have an unusual interest in the selection or success of a particular contractor, or in a particular contract?
- Take any actions with regard to certain contractors, or contracts, that are outside, or below, their normal duties?
- Routinely ignore standard policy and procedure to benefit a certain contractor?
Questions about the relationship between parties include:
- Is there close socialization or a “less than arm’s length relationship” between any contractor and project or government officials?
- Do any project or government officials:
- Accept inappropriate gifts, travel or entertainment from any contractors?
- Display new or unexplained wealth?
- Appear to have financial problems?
- Officials have outside business interests or companies?
- Have all project and government officials filed required conflict of interest and financial disclosure forms?
Questions about contract documentation include:
- Do any contractors submit inflated or questionable invoices, or fail to provide adequate documentation for them?
- Do any project or government officials routinely ignore or tolerate the submission of inadequate documentation by certain contractors?
- Are change order requests and payments adequately documented for all contractors?
- Are controls and procedures to prevent bribes and kickbacks in place and enforced?