PUBLISHED ONMay 23, 2025 5:00 AMByLim KeweiTwo engineering and construction contractors have been fined over $4.6 million collectively for rigging bids in tender exercises for the upgrading of three community clubs.
Trust-Build Engineering & Construction was slapped with a penalty of $4,295,059, and Hunan Fengtian Construction Group fined $349,350.
The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS) said on Friday (May 23) the two firms had rigged three tenders called by the People's Association (PA) in August and September 2022 for construction and major upgrading works at Bukit Batok, Cheng San and Eunos Community Clubs.
The works involved pilling and finishing, scaffolding, installation of doors and windows. Each affected tender was valued at between $17 million and $21 million, and the three had a value of about $56 million in total.
At the time when the PA called for bids, Hunan Fengtian and Trust-Build were registered with the Building & Construction Authority to undertake high-value contracts of up to $50 million for the former and $105 million for the latter.
Bid rigging is done when one contractor provides information about the bids to another, which would then typically submit a higher bid price to give the first company a better chance of winning.
In this case, both contractors had colluded with each other to make Trust-Build the "winner" of the PA tenders.
At a media conference on Friday, CCCS deputy director Caleb Tan said the general manager of Hunan Fengtian, Xing Hongyun, and the director of Trust-Build, Wang Jianjun, knew each other through industry contacts.
Xing had rigged the PA tender bids for Trust-Build as a means to secure future business from them for his own company.
He hence prepared tender bid prices and submissions for Wang to submit to the PA, and bid for the same tenders with the same submissions but at higher prices, to make Trust-Build's bids look more attractive.
But before the tenders were awarded, PA noticed that the submissions of both contractors had the same words, diagrams and pictures. It flagged the potential bid-rigging activities to CCCS.
Hunan Fengtian and Trust-Build were later excluded from tender evaluations.
CCCS started investigating in July 2023 after receiving information and raided the businesses in November 2023, securing evidence such as documents and information from employees of both firms.
They also secured evidence in the form of WhatsApp chats between Xing and Wang, who had discussed bid prices there.
The competition watchdog then issued a Proposed Infringement Decision to Hunan Fengtian and Trust-Build on Oct 25, 2024. Both companies later submitted their respective representations to CCCS.
On the financial penalties imposed, CCCS said it takes into account each firm's relevant turnover in the year the infringement took place and the turnover in the year the infringement decision is issued. Trust-Build has a higher turnover as a larger company.
Chief executive of CCCS Alvin Koh said bid-rigging undermines fair competition, distorts the regular operation of market forces, and prevents customers from obtaining genuine and competitive offers.
"In the context of public procurement where public funds are used, taxpayers are the ones who ultimately pay the price of such infringing conduct.
"In line with our mission to make Singapore markets work well, we will continue to take a more active enforcement stance and take decisive and firm action against businesses which are found to have engaged in anti-competitive conduct."
He added that persons with information on cartel activity can receive monetary rewards of up to $120,000 if they report it.
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