CCCS fines Rei Securite and ex-director over bid-rigging activity

The competition watchdog imposed $8,787 in total financial penalties on the two.

The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS) fined Rei Securite Pte. Ltd. (Rei) and ex-director Soh Chee Keong (Soh) due to a bid-rigging activity.

Rei Securite was fined $6,237 and SohSoh Chee Keong, the director of another, now-defunct, company called QBT was fined $2,550.

Between January 2021 and November 2022, Ngee Ann Polytechnic held three quotation exercises for vulnerability management software and related support services. Ngee Ann Polytechnic first detected the anti-competitive conduct and alerted CCCS in January 2023.

To create an illusion of competition, Soh and Rei hatched a plan whereby Soh submitted cover bids by two newly incorporated companies, QBTT Pte Ltd (QBTT) and Contabilita Pte Ltd (Contabilita), for each of the affected ITQs so as to put Rei in a better position to win the ITQs. These were companies with no business activity or revenue. Both companies never won or had the intention to win any of the NP ITQs.  

Investigations revealed that Soh had prepared and edited the bids for Rei, Contabilita and QBTT, which he submitted on GeBIZ (Government Electronic Business Portal) at different times using their Corppass accounts, such that the submissions appeared to be independently prepared and submitted.

Soh was fully aware of Rei’s bid prices and had ensured that QBTT and Contabilita had priced their respective bids in a manner that would ensure Rei’s bid would be the lowest and therefore the most competitive. Rei and Soh both benefitted from the arrangement when Rei won the ITQs. Soh received payment from Rei of up to $34,000 as “service fees” for providing IT support services to NP on behalf of Rei in respect of each of the affected ITQs.