An unusually high number of contract awards to the same company, without apparent justification, particularly in an otherwise highly competitive environment, can indicate corruption or collusive bidding.
For example, in international development projects a consulting firm generally can expect to win about one out of about five or six contracts for which it tenders; an unexplained success rate much higher than this can indicate possible corruption, particularly if other corruption indicators are present.
Also be alert for a small firm that receives multiple contracts for a wide variety of disparate goods or services. This can indicate that it is a broker or shell company controlled by a project official.
Multiple contract awards to the same firm can indicate collusive bidding, particularly if the awards appear on a rotating basis, with the winning firms appearing to dominate a certain geographical region, market or product line.
Do due diligence background checks on such a company if concerns arise.
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.