Collusive Tendering: The Paradigmatic Case for Public Entities

By: Emilio Jose Archila Penalosa & Camilo Pabón Almanza

While some investigations are conducted on the so-called “procurement cartels” in Colombia, a major institutional shift has been generated to protect public tenders. Thus, since 2009 the Superintendency of Industry and Commerce created an anticollusion group, opened over 30 preliminary inquiries related to bid rigging, the Congress enacted Act 1474 of 2011 to criminalize cartels in public procurement and, therefore, the Attorney General’s Office entered as a relevant institutional actor to prosecute such unlawful conduct. However, little has been said about what action should public servants take when they suspect collusive behavior, the risks of their actions and the convictions that can be set out years later.

Full Content: SSRN

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