On September 10-12, 2018, CLDP partnered with the Competition Agency of Georgia to conduct a Workshop on Preventing Bid-Rigging in Public Procurement.  The workshop brought together public procurement officials from the State Procurement Agency of Georgia, and other agencies at the national and regional levels, to discuss methods of identifying, investigating and preventing instances of bid rigging in public procurement. 

Bid rigging occurs when parties, who would otherwise be expected to compete, interfere with the competitive nature of procurement by agreeing in advance on the price of the winning bid and/or the winning bidder of a procured contract.  Bid rigging can take many forms but all result in inflated prices and/or lower quality goods or services.  This fraudulent practice, also called collusive tendering, defeats a major goal of public procurement - to safeguard the public welfare by ensuring that consumer demands are met by the manufacture and sale of quality goods at reasonable prices. 

This program was designed to build the capacity of the Competition Agency of Georgia, which has broad responsibilities for enforcing Georgia’s Competition Law.  The Competition Law applies to both commercial and state-owned entities and prohibits agreements and concerted economic arrangements that distort competition. The Government of Georgia established the Competition Agency in 2014 and it has already successfully investigated a number of violations by government agencies.  This program supports the Competition Agency by training its staff to identify anti-competitive practices in public procurement and initiate investigations against public and private entities that engage in these practices.  An effective competition agency will decrease instances of corruption and collusion in public procurement in Georgia, thereby increasing opportunities for American firms doing business there.