Bid-rigging: just 9 firms alleged to have benefited financially

Only nine of the 112 contractors named as suspects in the OFT's investigation into bid-rigging are alleged to have benefited financially from dodgy dealings, it has emerged today.

Despite a storm of negative media coverage yesterday, a source indicated to CJ that the vast majority of companies named were involved in cover pricing - bidding too high for a job in order to ensure that they did not win.

Meanwhile, nine are alleged to have made 'compensation' payments to rival bidders in order to submit inflated bids. This is thought to have happened in 12 cases.

The source said that the fact that only 12 instances of money changing hands had been found among the 240 cases of corruption that the OFT claims to have uncovered proved that clients had not lost out to a significant degree.