Firms involved in price cartel banned from public procurement

SIX construction companies who formed a cartel agreement to rig a tender for the construction of a section of the D1 freeway may be banned from taking part in public procurement tenders for five years, according to the Public Procurement Bureau (ÚVO).

"The Public Procurement Act says that only applicants who have not been found guilty of a serious violation of professional conduct in the past five years can take part in public procurement," said ÚVO spokeswoman Helena Fialová.

The Slovak Antimonopoly Bureau ruled earlier that construction firms Skanska DS, Inžinierske Stavby Košice, Strabag, Doprastav, Betamont, and Mota Engil had coordinated their price bids in advance of a tender for the construction of the freeway section between between Mengusovce and Jánovce near Poprad. The Bureau has already fined the companies a total of Sk1.349 billion.