Road Contract
A national road agency became concerned by escalating bid prices in its internationally-financed road project. As a result, the agency adopted a confidential policy that it would not accept any bid that was 30% or more above the Agency’s cost estimates. In the next round of bidding, the winning bidder submitted a bid that was 28% above the estimate, and the losing bidders (who, along with the winning bidder, were members of a collusive bidding ring) submitted bids of 31%, 32%, 33%, 34% and 35% above the estimates. This was, of course, strong circumstantial evidence of the leaking of bid data and collusion, which was confirmed by the subsequent investigation.