Bid rigging: CC blasts OFT over 'unsubstantiated claims'

The Construction Confederation has fired a fresh broadside at the Office of Fair Trading over its investigation of the industry, citing the OFT’s "unsubstantiated claims made to the media."

In its latest annual review, the confederation claimed that "the effect of this not only harmed the industry’s reputation but caused confusion and understandable concern among its public sector clients."

Confederation chairman James Wates said its chief complaint relates to the allegation that the kind of anti-competitive activities uncovered in the OFT investigation artificially inflated public sector contract prices by 10%. Wates disputed the figure claiming that it was "based on generic studies by competition authorities on the effects of more serious hard core price fixing cartels and has very little relevance to the vaste majority of companies".