Eliminating likely winners in advance of bids

• If there is a pre-qualification process which assesses potential bidders’ technical or financial capability in advance of permitting them to bid, the procurement manager overseeing the bid process may corruptly evaluate the pre-qualification in a manner which results in the likely winners of the bid being eliminated in advance of bid submission.
• This makes it easier for a corruptly pre-selected bidder to win the subsequent bid, as genuine competitors have been improperly eliminated at pre-qualification stage.

Creating a false appearance of competition

• Creating fictitious bidders:  The procurement manager may corruptly create fictitious bidders and fictious bid documents so that it appears that the necessary number of competitors have submitted bids.  However, only the corruptly pre-selected winning bidder may be genuine.
• Cartels:  The bidders may corruptly and secretly agree with each other who will win the bid, and the other bidders then submit bids at a higher price than the pre-selected winner.  It therefore falsely appears that there has been a genuine competitive bid.

Inadequate bid advertising

• The procurement manager may inform the corruptly pre-selected winner of the bid opportunity well in advance, but does not adequately advertise the bid opportunity to other potential competitors.
• The outcome is that only the corruptly pre-selected winner is aware of the bid opportunity, so only it submits a bid.

Shortened response time / accelerated bid

• The procurement manager may corruptly inform the pre-selected winner of the bid opportunity well in advance of publicly advertising the bid opportunity.
• The manager then advertises the bid opportunity correctly, but implements a bid timetable which gives insufficient time for the other bidders to prepare a full or compliant bid.
• The pre-selected winner therefore has a significant advantage due to its early warning.