Councils urged not to blacklist bid rigging firms

The UK Contractors Group has written to all UK local authorities and other key public sector clients urging them not to blacklist the 103 firms found guilty under the Office of Fair Trading’s four-year inquiry into bid-rigging.

The UKCG has enclosed a copy of the note produced by the OFT with this morning’s announcement which tells clients guilty contractors “should not be excluded automatically from future tenders.”

The UKCG is hoping the combination of the OFT’s note and its letter will persuade procurers not to punish guilty firms twice by shunning them for future work.

Stephen Ratcliffe, director of the UKCG, said: “It is important that everybody now moves on and that companies who have been fined for past practices are not discriminated against in the future.”