Brandon contractors charged with bid rigging

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This article was published 21/12/2022 (1341 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Canada’s Competition Bureau has charged five Brandon area contractors with fraud in an alleged bid-rigging operation related to work the five did for Manitoba Housing and Renewal Corp.

The work on close to 90 contracts was valued at about $4.5 million was done between 2011 and 2016.

The lengthy investigation included participation from the Brandon Police Service and MHRC.

Because the alleged price rigging scheme involved refurbishment of much needed affordable housing it was seen as particularly galling.

“Manipulating contracts to suppress competition is a serious crime,” said Matthew Boswell, Commissioner of Competition in a statement

“It results in higher costs for construction projects and is especially concerning when it comes to affordable housing. Cracking down on cartels is a top priority for the Competition Bureau, and we are determined to pursue all those who collude to increase their profits by defrauding public funds.”

The five were charged with conspiracy to commit fraud over $5,000 under the Criminal Code and conspiracy to allocate contracts under the Competition Act.

Rochelle Squires, minister of families, which department MHRC falls under, said the investigation and subsequent charges has brought the whole issue under sharp focus.

“When the breaches were being investigated, the department took steps to ensure that taxpayers’ dollars on housing would be well spent on a go-forward basis,” she said.

Among other things a PricewaterhouseCoopers analysis was commissioned that she said gave the department “some best practices to ensure we had a better procurement process.”

Now every piece of work for MHRC in Brandon will be sent through the public tendering process including jobs valued at under $100,000 which would typically be under the tendering threshold.

In reaching out to the individuals charged one office hung up when they heard it was a reporter calling. Another said that one of the charged individuals had left a particular contracting company in September of this year.

The Competition Bureau said that individuals convicted of price-fixing, allocating markets, or conspiracy may receive fines of up to $25 million and/or be sentenced to a jail term of up to 14 years.

It also said that if contractors believe they are involved in an illegal agreement with their competitors they can come forward and seek immunity from prosecution or leniency in return for their co-operation with the bureau’s investigation.

It also encourages anyone who suspects that a company is involved in bid-rigging, price-fixing, or supply restrictions, to report it by using the bureau’s online complaint form.

Squires said she could not comment on the specifics of the matter because it is before the courts, but she said it’s important that the housing dollars that Manitoba Housing spends go toward creating and maintaining housing for people who are very vulnerable.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca