United Kingdom: Data Analysis to Detect Bid Rigging
On 8 September, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) called for stronger action to detect bid rigging in public procurement through systematic screening of procurement data.
In particular, the CMA recommends making tackling bid rigging an explicit public procurement priority and mandating the collection and retention of all bid-level information, including unsuccessful bids, in a machine-readable format. This would enable procurement data to be screened at scale across government departments and other public bodies to identify suspicious patterns in bidding behaviour.
To this end, the CMA has already developed its in-house Bid Rigging Intelligence Tool (BRIT), which scans tender information for suspicious patterns that may indicate collusion. The tool is being piloted with public bodies, including the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department for Education and the Ministry of Justice; according to the CMA, these pilots have already begun to generate live enforcement opportunities.
The CMA also points to the potentially significant financial harm caused by bid rigging. Around £400 billion is spent on UK public procurement annually, while bid rigging can increase prices by 20% or more. On what the CMA describes as a conservative assumption that bid rigging affects only 2% of public procurement, taxpayers could be overpaying suppliers by around £1 billion a year; under higher, but still conservative, prevalence estimates, the figure could reach £3.5 billion.
Chile: Declarations of Interests by Procurement Participants
Chile continues to implement updated requirements aimed at preventing conflicts of interest in public procurement. On 1 September, ChileCompra, the country’s public procurement agency, reported that the obligation to file a Declaration of Interests and Assets (Declaración de Intereses y Patrimonio – DIP) now applies to more than 43,000 public officials and other persons involved in procurement and contract management.
Following the 2023 reform of Law No. 19.886 on public procurement, the declaration must now be filed by all persons involved in a procurement procedure or the performance of a contract, regardless of their position or legal status. These include, among others, members of bid evaluation committees, contract managers, requesting officials, staff of procurement units, lawyers involved in reviewing procurement documents and officials signing procurement-related administrative acts.
Public bodies are required to register such persons on the Mercado Público electronic platform. In addition to the annual declaration filed in March, procurement participants must update their declarations in September, which, according to ChileCompra, should facilitate the more timely identification of potential conflicts of interest.
Colombia: Anti-Corruption Clauses in Public Contracts
On 4 August, Colombia adopted Decree No. 0997 of 2026, introducing amendments to public procurement rules, including measures implementing recommendations of the OECD Working Group on Bribery in International Business Transactions.
The Decree requires anti-corruption clauses to be included in procurement documents and subsequently complied with by the contractor. In addition, bidders are required to submit an anti-corruption declaration, agreement or commitment together with their bid.
When drafting such provisions, public bodies are required to take into account their measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, bribery and fraud, integrity risk management systems, as well as their own transparency and ethics programmes.
Another measure requires contracting authorities, when checking for potential grounds for excluding a supplier, to consult applicable international debarment, prohibition and sanctions lists maintained by multilateral organisations to which Colombia belongs. Evidence that such checks have been carried out must be retained in the procurement records. Colombia’s National Public Procurement Agency links these changes, among other things, to the prevention of foreign bribery in public contracting.
Ecuador: Supplier Integrity Profile
As part of its public procurement reform, Ecuador has introduced mandatory supplier integrity assessments. Amendments to the General Regulations to the Organic Law of the National Public Procurement System have been in force since 30 July, and on 7 August the National Public Procurement Service (Servicio Nacional de Contratación Pública – SERCOP) approved the Supplier Integrity Profile Form and a model sworn declaration of supplier integrity.
The relevant forms are available on a dedicated SERCOP webpage.
The Supplier Integrity Profile must be submitted together with the bid. Failure to submit it, errors in the form or the absence of a valid signature constitute non-remediable deficiencies and result in the rejection of the bid. Before entering into a public contract, the successful bidder must also submit a notarised sworn declaration of supplier integrity.
SERCOP emphasises that these requirements are intended to promote transparency and prevent conflicts of interest. The submission of false or inaccurate information may result in administrative, civil or criminal liability.
The reform also provides for other risk-detection tools. Oversight may take into account historical procurement patterns, links between bidders, indicators of bid rigging and contract splitting, beneficial ownership information and due diligence findings. Predictive risk models may also be used to identify, for example, unusual prices, systematic concentration of contracts with a single supplier or frequent changes to contract terms and deadlines.
Australia: Comprehensive Assessment of Supplier Integrity
On 11 June, the Australian Department of Finance updated its guidance on the ethical conduct of tenderers and suppliers.
When assessing a potential supplier, officials are expected to consider not only its relevant experience and performance history, but also any unethical behaviour or significant deficiencies in performance under prior contracts. Depending on the nature of the procurement, the reputation and behaviour of tenderers should also be factored into the procurement process, while due diligence should be undertaken with regard to the Commonwealth Supplier Code of Conduct.
The Code sets out expectations relating, among other things, to the appropriate management of conflicts of interest, business integrity and the protection of sensitive, privileged and confidential information. Public bodies are advised to monitor suppliers’ ethical behaviour throughout the term of a contract and to include provisions allowing termination for material breaches. Practices regarded as unacceptable include, among others, fraud, corruption and unmanaged conflicts of interest.
The current situation involving KPMG Australia illustrates how this approach can be applied in practice. In response to ethical concerns arising from the company’s use of confidential client information, the Department of Finance is assessing KPMG’s ethical soundness and has commissioned an independent review of its governance, culture, ethics and integrity frameworks. Under an agreement with the Commonwealth, KPMG has temporarily ceased bidding for new Commonwealth work: officials have been advised not to enter into contracts with KPMG for approaches to market closing between 16 June and 30 September 2026.
