Superintendent asks for the condemnation of cartel in ambulance bid rigging

In an Official Opinion published in the Official Gazette on Monday (20/5), the General Superintendence of the Administrative Council for Economic Defense - CADE recommended the conviction of three companies for cartel formation in bid rigging for the acquisition of ambulances for the National Health System. Now the case is to be decided by the Tribunal.

Administrative Proceeding (no. 08012.003931/2005-55) was established by Cade based on documents submitted by the Secretariat of Health of the State of São Paulo, the body responsible for conducting the call. The complaint concerned a bid rigging call, held in 2005, for the purchase of 200 ambulances to be used at São Paulo municipalities. 

The Superintendence found that the three companies mentioned in the proceeding presented proposals with identical format, including the same spelling and typing mistakes, and with regular price ranges. It also detected the adoption of strategies to ensure that the winning bidder was the one previously agreed by the group.

Such behaviors are internationally recognized as indicative of cartel in bid riggings, as it is demonstrated by the 2009 study from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). After analyzing the case, the General Superintendence concluded that there was an agreement to defraud the competitive nature of the bidding.
Under Law 12.529/11, companies may be condemned to pay between 0.1% and 20% of their turnover on the business field in which the offense occurred.