Fast-track bid-rigging cases, builders urge

ALLEGATIONS of cartel activity and bid-rigging against some of SA’s biggest construction firms affect the integrity of the industry and the fact that the matters remain unresolved is of concern, an industry body said on Friday.

The Competition Commission announced in February last year it was investigating 65 bid-rigging cases in the construction sector, implicating more than 70 projects with a value of about R29bn.

Annelie Gildenhuys, executive director of labour relations at the Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors, said on Friday the investigations had to be fasttracked. The continued “delving into the past” had a negative affect on the industry at a time when SA was preparing for another infrastructure development wave.

Banning those companies found guilty of anticompetitive conduct from government contracts, as talk had it, was not feasible due to capacity constraints and could spell further job losses in an industry hard-hit by the global economic crises, she said.

The projects involved in the investigations include the building of stadiums for the 2010 Fifa World Cup; the upgrade of airports; highway improvement projects including the toll-road system in Gauteng; and the building of hospitals, dams and bridges.

The commission at the time announced a fast-track settlement process. Trudi Makhaya, divisional manager of advocacy and stakeholder relations at the commission, said on Friday it was “not ready” to make any announcement on the fast-track process.

Ms Gildenhuys said there was so much focus on what allegedly went wrong in the past that it perpetuated the negative image of the industry, and deflected from government corruption. “Government is taking punitive, negative and retrospective action (against the industry) where they are the very people that come to the party without clean hands.

“To suggest that there is a possibility of banning these companies from any future government work is certainly not the solution. We are not convinced that it would be feasible,” she said.

She said it was in the interest of the federation to ensure its members were in good standing, acted ethically and delivered the work.