The Competition Commission is developing an artificial intelligence (AI) tool to identify suspected bid-rigging in public procurement as government advances its infrastructure programme.
Commissioner Doris Tsepe told Parliament’s select committee on economic development and trade on September 30 that the software would help identify potential cartel conduct in electronic public procurement.
The tool is being developed with the Competition Authority of Singapore and AI specialists at the University of Pretoria. The Commission plans to test it using the Western Cape’s electronic tender database.
Tsepe said stronger cartel detection was needed to protect public infrastructure spending.
“We need to ensure that in that work that government is doing that bid rigging does not take away money that is meant to be for the benefit of the country,” she told MPs.
The Commission is also examining databases of companies found guilty of cartel conduct in other countries to establish whether they operate in South Africa and whether similar practices could be occurring locally.
The initiatives come amid a decline in leniency applications, which Tsepe said had contributed to a slowdown in cartel enforcement.
She said public sector tender bid-rigging was a particular focus for the Commission, given the scale of government’s infrastructure programme.
