Inspections and Bid-Rigging. Competition Authority of Poland held a workshop on the exchange of experience for the AMCU

The experience of the Competition Authority of Poland (UOKiK) and other EU structures in conducting inspections and bid-rigging prevention: a two-day workshop on these issues was held on July 6-7 at the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine.

On the first day, the participants of the webinar studied the international experience of conducting inspections by competing agencies. Anna Janowska-Kupidurska, Head of the UOKiK Department of Competition Protection, spoke about the Polish experience on this issue. At the same time, Janusz Wójcicki spoke about the protection of electronic documents during inspections. The Chief expert in competition of the Directorate-General for Competition of the European Commission, Hubert Beuve-Méry, spoke about the standards of inspections.

On the second day, participants and speakers focused in more detail on the prevention of bid-rigging and cartels. In particular, the Head of UOKiK Department of Bid-Rigging Prevention, Adam Krukowski, spoke about the types of bid-rigging and who, according to Polish legislation, is responsible for them. The expert outlined the circumstances of the emergence of bid-rigging, the specifics of combating it and cooperation with other Polish authorities on this issue.

Adam Krukowski also emphasized the specifics of monitoring tenders that use European funds:

“This is an important monitoring that appeared in connection with receiving the first large financial infusions from the EU. Conducting such monitoring is necessary in view of the interests of the customer. In the case of detection of bid-rigging with European funds, there is a high risk of imposing a so-called “correction” on the entity that disposes of these funds. “Correction” means that it is necessary to return the European funds allocated to finance the project,” Krukowski notes.

Charlotte Janssen and Gerard Baak, representatives of the Authority for Consumers and Markets of the Netherlands, also joined the workshop. They talked about their national competition legislation, the prerequisites for the formation of cartels, the methods of exposing bid-rigging and cartels, the harm of these violations for competition. The speakers also talked about practical cases of detecting bid-rigging.

In total, more than 20 employees of specialized departments of the AMCU took part in the workshop. In the future, they will have the opportunity to receive additional consultations with the speakers.

Cooperation on the exchange of experience is extremely important for the AMCU. After all, on the way to membership in the EU, our country must bring its legislation and the system of work of state bodies in line with the practices of the countries of the European Union.