Slide 1

Public procurement in Italy ICN Annual Conference Sidney, April 2015 11 Alessandra Tonazzi Autorit Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato

Slide 2

Fighting bid rigging is a priority In Italy, procurement contracts account for 10% of the gross national product Many public procurement agencies at national and local level Numerous formal investigations, 500 million fines 2

Slide 3

Detection Handbook on identifying and interpreting signals of potential bid-rigging (2013) Based on OECD Guidelines Addressed to all procurement agencies in Italy Triggered numerous complaints on bid-rigging 9 formal proceedings ongoing at the end of 2014 3

Slide 4

Prevention Competition advocacy 28 out of the 55 opinions issued in 2014 concerned public procurement Cooperation Memorandum of Understanding with the Anti-Corruption Authority with a view to foster information exchange and cooperation (2014) 4

Slide 5

Case examples 1 Banking sector Inquiry: structural and behavioral factors leading to weak competition (poor information to customers and switching costs) Complaint from a public administration on suspicious tenders Assessment: single and continued agreement among the four banks aimed at sharing the market and avoiding competition Use of evidence of information exchange and economic models 5

Slide 6

Case examples 2 Insurance sector Inquiry: information deficit for customers and obstacles to customer mobility Complaint: local health unit complained about anomalous tenders Requests for information to other 8 local health units about tenders over the previous 10 years Single and continued agreement among the four biggest insurance companies aimed at sharing 20 tenders along ten years 6