Long, unexplained delays between the submission of a bid and the recommendation of a contract award or the signing of a contract can be the result of corruption. For example:
- Corrupt officials might find it difficult to justify the award of a contract to a favored bidder under the procurement rules and delay the award as they attempt to do so;
- The designated winning bidder and project officials might be in extended negotiations on the terms of bribe demands, such as the amounts and payment schedules;
- The officials might deliberately delay the award beyond the bid validity period in order to support the disqualification of all bidders and the need for re-bidding.
Delays can, of course, be for legitimate reasons. As with all red flags, look for other indicators of wrongdoing before drawing any firm conclusions.
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.