Senior industry source says payments were paid to bid 'losers' on only 12 occasions

Only nine of the construction firms alleged to have rigged bids by the OFT have benefited financially, an industry source has revealed.

The majority of the companies named by the OFT were guilty of cover pricing, which is the practice of placing bids that were known to be too high to win a tender.

The nine compensated those deliberately losing bids in only 12 instances. The OFT has claimed to have uncovered 240 cases of corruption in total.