Procurement thresholds can be manipulated to avoid competition or prior review and to facilitate the award of contracts to favored bidders, often as the result of corruption.
For example, project officials can raise the normal $50,000 limit for sole source contract awards to $100,000 to permit the award of larger contracts, without competition, to corrupt bidders in exchange for bribes or kickbacks.
This red flag can indicate the following schemes:
Click on the schemes listed above to see more information on each scheme, a more complete listing of their red flags and steps to determine if the schemes are actually present.