The OPP says its investigators are looking into information passed to them by Toronto’s auditor general, alleging that several unnamed paving companies in Scarborough are rigging bids for city contracts with the help of city employees.
“I can confirm that the OPP Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB) is involved in this matter,” Sgt. Peter Leon told CP24 on Friday. “I cannot go into any details due to the ongoing nature.”
Auditor General Beverly Romeo-Beehler studied $594 million in contracts that were awarded between January 2010 and June 2015 and found that in many cases there were “red flags” that she says should raise concerns about the potential for bid-rigging.
In one such case, Romeo-Beehler identified a bid where one contractor’s quoted price was “exactly 10 per cent” above another contractor’s quoted price on 44 different line items.
Romeo-Beehler said that she also identified other instances, where a contractor would submit an exceedingly high price for one line item in a given bid and then a lower price for the exact same item in another bid.
She said that could be an example of cover bidding, wherein contractors submit token bids that are priced deliberately high in order to give the impression of competitive bidding.
Many of the allegations centre around Scarborough, where Romeo-Beehler found that only four companies bid on contracts between 2010 and 2015 and two of them won out 93 per cent of the time.
A third bidder on 86 per cent of all contracts didn’t win a single one.
Parties found guilty of bid-rigging can receive fines of up to $25 million and or a prison sentence of up to 14 years.
It is not known which firms are being investigated as part of the OPP probe.
