The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has released a diagnostic tool kit (DTK) to help corporate and public procurement agencies to identify discrepancies at every stage of the tendering process.

The kit also conveys adverse effect it would have on the procurer or buyer that could result in delay in bidding process or prove expensive. The initiative is an attempt by the Commission to reduce bid-rigging across sectors.

According to reports, public procurement in India accounts for about 30 per cent of the GDP, which makes it a major component of the economy. This also means that there is as much bid-rigging and cartels that have emerged to take advantage of it.

Bid-rigging is an illegal practice where competing parties collude to choose the winner of a bidding process while others submit uncompetitive bids. The act harms competition as it prevents capable agencies from entering into the fray.

For instance, the CCI levied a penalty of ₹6,700 crore on 11 cement firms, including Ultratech, Ramco, JK Cement and the industry body Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA), for indulging in cartelisation. Recently four firms were penalised by the CCI in two bid-rigging cases related to tenders floated by the Pune Municipal Corporation. Not long before, three firms were penalised for big-rigging of tenders floated by the Indian Railways.

The Competition Assessment Toolkit or DTK is meant to curb this practice of cartels. The document was an attempt to educate corporate and government agencies across sectors from e-commerce to aviation. The toolkit aids companies and public procurement agencies at every stage of tendering process right from conceptualisation to the delivery of product, and identify anti-competitive practice. The practice could be technical, financial qualification or procedural that prevents other players from participating. It also encourages them to report such practice to the CCI.

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