Romania’s anti-trust body fines IT companies for rigging auction

Romania’s Competition Council has fined the IT companies Siveco Romania and Intrarom with RON 8 million (EUR 1.75 million) for rigging a public auction organized by the Agency for Payments and Intervention for Agriculture (APIA) in 2008. The two IT companies rigged the auction in order to get the EUR 12 million contract for developing the IT system, according to the competition authorities. Intrarom received a fine of RON 2.1 million (EUR 465,000) whereas Siveco got a fine of RON 5.88 million (EUR 1.2 million). The investigation started from information the Court of Auditors had provided. "During the investigation, the Competition Council has found evidence of the agreement between the two companies. Intrarom participated only formally in the tender in order to ensure the number of bidders, but without getting into real competition with Siveco Romania," according to the Competition Council’s press release. Romania’s anti-trust body couldn’t find strong evidence about the misconduct of the other two companies that took part in the respective auction, namely IBM Romania and Teamnet International. Four Romanian companies fined EUR 5.6 mln for bid rigging editor@romania-insider.com