In December’s episode of the www.duncancartlidgeonlinepodcast I touched on the infamous Poulson corruption case in the 1960s and the impact it had on construction suppliers and clients at the time. For many years, before being jailed, Poulson bribed his way to securing public housing contracts during a housing crisis. Fast forward sixty years, and it appears construction still hasn’t learned. During the last weeks of 2024, a large demolition contractor lost its appeal against a £16m fine imposed by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for being part of a cartel that operated a bid-rigging operation.
Again, last month, the CMA announced a new bid-rigging probe relating to the Department for Education’s Condition Improvement Fund, which is awarded annually to schools with buildings in poor condition. After unannounced inspections of several businesses, the CMA said it believed that a number of firms providing roofing and construction services, including contractors and technical advisors, were illegally colluding to secure contracts. And now an investigation into a group of seven house builders has been launched by the CMA following concerns they may have exchanged “competitively sensitive information”.
But there is some reason for optimism as you may have heard that he government recently announced that AI was to be 'unleashed'. Now, while I still wait to be convinced about the application of AI to construction, it is interesting that the CMA, is reported to be trialing the use of AI in an effort to tackle bid-rigging. The watchdog has piloted a new tool which uses AI to scour large-scale data to identify which public procurement markets are at significant risk of corrupt practices. According to the head of the CMA they now have the capability to be able to scan data to spot anomalies and to identify areas of potential anti-competitive conduct and it is proving to be quite successful.
Duncan Cartlidge
Kommentare