SUBANG JAYA (June 23): The Malaysia Competition Commission (MyCC) is investigating 500 companies suspected of being involved in rigging the bidding process of contracts worth RM2 billion across industries, with 43% of total cases involving the construction industry.

MyCC commissioner Datuk Jagjit Singh Bant Singh said MyCC has received many complaints on the matter, with the government sector making up the bulk of complainants.

He revealed this during a session entitled “The Intersection Between Bid Rigging and Corruption” at the 3rd Malaysia Competition Law Conference 2022 on Thursday (June 23).

Ministry of Finance (MoF) head of government procurement policy section Ahmad Fauzi Sungip also confirmed the case with The Edge on the sidelines of the conference and added that the issue may "interrelate with corruption".

“As of now, 500 companies are under investigation on possible colluding ... I could say they are quite experienced companies,” Fauzi said.

One of the panelists of the session, Fauzi shared that the government is looking seriously into the issue of bid-rigging in the country as the government and the public would be the ones who ultimately suffer losses.

“In Malaysia, government procurement is the acquisition of goods, services and works for government purposes. In terms of size, government procurement is about 10% to 15% of our gross domestic product (GDP).

“If we look at last year’s GDP figure of about RM1.5 trillion, in terms of value, government procurement in Malaysia was around RM160 billion," he said, adding the sum comprised procurements by the federal government, state government, local authorities and statutory bodies.

Fauzi added that the government has built a new in-house, award-winning system called Cartelogy to effectively detect possible bid rigging from documents sent through e-procurement channels.

“Cartelogy could see (the bids) and detect red flags, like if it comes from the same IP address. It can also (observe) patterns in terms of submission date and time, as well as price variations and specifications,” he said.