Corporations suspected of rigging bids for pavement projects since before 3/11 (Japan)
Source: Mainichi.Jp
Corporations suspected of banding together to rig bids for pavement projects in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 2011 are strongly suspected of having been doing so for years before the quake as well, it has been learned.
When construction costs were raised due to a shortage of personnel and other resources after the earthquake disaster, the corporations worked together to push up the prices that they would do the jobs for, it is alleged. Now, it has been learned that this conspiring is thought to have continued for over five years for a period stretching both before and after the quake disaster.
On Jan. 28 and 29 this year, the commission searched the offices of 20 companies including major construction firm Nippo Corp. on suspicion of breaking the anti-monopoly law by illicitly restricting others' transactions. The companies are accused with regard to auctions for 12 expressway paving projects that were ordered by East Nippon Expressway Co.'s Tohoku branch in August and September of 2011.
According to the source, one or more of the businesses has admitted to the allegations that corporations conspired together to rig the 12 auctions, telling the commission, "Such conspiring was taking place from at least a few years prior to the earthquake."
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