Corruption Watch calls for prosecution of construction cartel
Corruption Watch has made a submission to the Competition Tribunal, calling for those involved in the construction cartel to be prosecuted.
Corruption Watch on Wednesday said it made a submission to the Competition Tribunal for the hearings into the R1.46-billion settlement agreements facing top listed construction firms, which rigged bids for, among other large projects, the 2010 soccer World Cup infrastructure projects.
The submission follows the Competition Commission's call on June 24 for 15 construction firms to pay penalties for collusive tendering. The penalties announced at the time were a percentage of the annual turnover of each company and took into account the number of projects each company was involved in. It was the commission's single biggest collective settlement involving private companies, according to Minister of Economic Development Ebrahim Patel at the time.
In Corruption Watch's submission, the organisation said it pointed to other action that could be taken to increase the effective penalties imposed on the firms settling, and so increase the level of deterrence.
