The Competition Commission on Wednesday revealed that it’s doing something about it versus 4 business and 3 individuals it thinks rigged quotes for government-funded IT agreements worth around HK$ 13 million.
The case centres on 189 agreements released under the Distance Business Programme, a plan to assist little and medium-sized business throughout the Covid pandemic, in 2020 and 2021.
The agreements went to 2 business, BP/Noble and Yat Ying. The commission declares that 2 other business, Multisoft and KWEK, had actually sent cover quotes– greater quotes for a particular agreement which can just be granted if there is more than one quote– to enable them to win. The commission states these actions represent major anti-competitive conduct.
“When Yat Ying put in a bid together with Multisoft or KWEK, Yat Ying would constantly come out to be the winner, and the very same uses to BP/Noble … and this sort of [result] we can persevere the 189 applications which we have actually taken a look at,” stated Rasul Butt, the commission’s CEO.
The commission included that it discovered that individuals handling the 4 services understood each other, with those at Yat Ying and BP/Noble being a couple.
“The individual who was accountable at Multisoft, he is good friends with somebody in the other business, whereas when it comes to KWEK, the individual worried– according to our examination– has actually gotten some monetary benefits in supplying cover quotes.”
The commission stated it had actually started procedures in the Competition Tribunal versus the business, along with represenatives of 3 of business, for apparently contravening the Competition Ordinance. It stated the director of Multisoft had actually given that passed away.
It’s looking for charges consisting of monetary penalties, disqualification for among the directors, in addition to endeavors for business to embrace reliable compliance policies.
The guard dog states it’s likewise referred the case to cops to examine possible criminal conduct in the kind of forgery and sending incorrect or deceptive files.
