Journal of Legal Affairs and Dispute Resolution in Engineering and Construction 17(4).
ISSN/ISBN: Not available at this time. DOI: 10.1061/JLADAH.LADR-1311
Abstract: Competitive tendering ensures transparency, probity, and value for money, but client, consultant, tenderer, supplier, and engineer collude for self-gain, and bids become uncompetitive. Uncompetitive tendering impedes investment, with consequent effects on growth and development. Ensuring competitive tendering is the backbone of curbing collusive tendering. Collusive tendering is the root cause of most corruption. It is a big challenge for procurement authorities, technical auditors, and controllers. Attempts are being made to prevent it through rules and regulations, but little effort has ever been made to develop a robust method to detect it. The author identifies and selects indicators from academic literature and case studies to predict collusion. It is observed that detecting collusion is still a big challenge. This paper demonstrates that the use of the Benford’s law, statistical tests (BS3P) methodology, i.e., BS3P, and the three Ps of physical indicators— participant, pattern, and price—can help detect cases of collusive tendering in traditional contracts. A probabilistic method is developed, and using data from three case studies it is tested. This approach can be useful to procurement authorities, technical auditors, and controllers involved in corruption prevention and detection, thus contributing to the global community.
Bibtex:
@article{,
author = {Syed Zafar Shahid Tabish },
title = {Detecting Collusion in Traditional Contracts},
journal = {Journal of Legal Affairs and Dispute Resolution in Engineering and Construction},
volume = {17},
number = {4},
pages = {04525051},
year = {2025},
doi = {10.1061/JLADAH.LADR-1311},
URL = {https://ascelibrary.org/doi/abs/10.1061/JLADAH.LADR-1311},
}
Reference Type: Journal Article
Subject Area(s): Accounting