Fair Trade Commission (FTC) stated that it would levy $875,000 (999 million KRW) of fine onto Water Resources Engineering Corporation (WARECO) and Bu-kyoung Engineering for rigging the bidding of Korea Water Resources Corporation on groundwater monitoring system inspection service and charge WARECO.
Bu-kyoung Engineering had played a supporting role for WARECO so that WARECO could be selected by Korea Water Resources Corporation for its bid on groundwater monitoring system inspection service that was placed order five times between 2006 and 2014. WARECO agreed to pay Bu-kyoung Engineering somewhere between $26,000 and $44,000 (30 million KRW and 50 million KRW) per each bidding.
WARECO requested Bu-kyoung Engineering to bid at a higher amount than itself. As a result, WARECO successfully won bids as it placed bids lower than that of Bu-kyoung Engineering.
FTC levied $583,000 (666 million KRW) and $292,000 (333 million KRW) fines on WARECO and Bu-kyoung Engineering respectively and it decided to charge WARECO that was responsible for collusion to prosecutors.
“We exposed collusion that had been taking place for more than 8 years.” said Department Head Sung Kyung-jae. “This will establish a competition order for future biddings and lower national budget.”
Staff Reporter Yoo, Seonil | ysi@etnews.com