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Construction cartel: Indecopi detects 33 construction companies that shared MTC works

The Indecopi Free Competition Defense Commission sanctioned, in the first administrative instance, the so-called Construction cartel, made up of 33 construction companies and 26 of their executives for having adopted a secret coordination system to distribute various tenders called by Provías, a unit attached to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MTC), and various regional governments for the execution of road works at the national level.

Through Resolution 080-2021 / CLC-INDECOPI, of November 15 of this year, the Commission for the Defense of Free Competition confirmed that construction companies as Graña and Montero, Camargo and Correa, Height, CyM, Aramsa, What do you know and obrainsa, among others, were part of the cartel and maintained an agreement for the illegal distribution of tenders between November 2002 and December 2016.

As established by the Peruvian Free Competition Law, One of the most serious forms of anticompetitive conduct are the agreements between bidding companies not to compete and, instead, distribute the tenders that the State calls for the contracting of goods and services. This type of illegal behavior generates excessive expenses for the State, because the bidders stop competing to obtain the good bid, increasing the value of their proposals.

At a press conference, the executive president of the body, Julián Palacín Gutiérrez, highlighted that this decision of the Commission marks an important milestone in the fight against business cartels and the defense of competition in the country.

“As president of Indecopi I want to give the public the message that we are committed to the decision-making autonomy of the institution, and I will make every effort to facilitate the work of specialists, so that they continue to carry out research with all autonomy and technicality so that they continue detecting, dismantling and sanctioning business cartels that cause so much damage to the national economy and slow down our development ”, he endorsed.

Indecopi: Cartel distributed 112 tenders

According to the Commission, during this period the offending companies agreed to distribute 112 public procurement processes for the construction, improvement, rehabilitation and maintenance of highways in the country. The sum of the amounts awarded in the investigated works was greater than 14,000 million soles.

For this reason, the Commission for the Defense of Free Competition decided to sanction the companies with fines that reach a total of 624,891.50 UIT, equivalent to 2 million 749 thousand 52 soles. The 26 executives involved in the infringement were fined a total of 1,531.3 UIT, equivalent to more than 6.7 million soles.

What’s more, Indecopi ordered that the member companies of the cartel implement “Compliance programs with free competition rules” for a period of five years, based on the recommendations contained in the Free Competition Compliance Program Guide (2020), with the aim of ensuring compliance with these regulations within them and reducing the risks of repeating this type of infraction.

The decision issued by the Commission may be appealed to the Specialized Chamber for the Defense of Competition of the Indecopi Court, the last administrative instance that may confirm, revoke or annul this decision.

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