Another bid-rigging case dismissed on technicalities

The companies, Creative Business Solutions trading as Bread and Butter Foods and Rabbit Group, were accused of having connived to rig a €139,600 (P20.7 million) tender for the supply of 1.5 million units of infant formula in 400 gramme cans to the Department of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Cure in the Ministry of Health.

The competition watchdog acted on a tip-off from a whistleblower who alleged that the two companies had rigged the tender.  A year-long investigation was subsequently initiated and was, with the authority of the commission, further extended by six months.  In a judgment passed this week, the commission admitted that it had erred in granting an extension of the investigations as the authority had filed the application a day after the stipulated one-year timeframe allowed by the act.