Bribery — bid rigging and procurement manipulation

An employee manipulates the procurement process for a favored vendor, or vendors coordinate their bids among themselves. Methods include tailoring specifications, leaking competing bids, splitting purchases to avoid bid thresholds, accepting late bids, and approving change orders that restore the margin a low bid gave up.

Partly covered. The remaining analysis is planned.

Starter pack: Procurement integrity

Red flags

In the data

• Sole-source awards and awards just under bid thresholds
• Same losing bidders, rotating winners, or bids that are unusually close
• Change orders that raise the contract price significantly after award
• Invoices or POs that together exceed a limit but individually fall under it

Behavioral

• Employee has unusual contact with bidders during the procurement
• Qualified bidders decline to bid

Internal controls

• Bid openings not public or not witnessed
• Change orders approved by the same person who managed the award
• No review of purchases split across days or POs