AI-Based System Developed to Catch Possible Collusion in Public Procurement
The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has developed an artificial intelligence-based system to detect bid rigging in public procurement. Called the Bid Rigging Detection System, it will identify suspicious bids and possible collusion among bidders.
According to the commission, Pakistan spends roughly $60 billion on public procurement every year, equal to 15 to 20 percent of the country’s GDP. Monitoring purchases on this scale with the tools available until now has been difficult.
CCP Chairman Farid Ahmed Tarar said that procurement worth trillions of rupees cannot be monitored or checked manually. The new system will help the commission direct its investigative resources towards higher-risk cases. He made clear that the system’s alerts will not be final proof of a violation or a cartel. Every case will still need independent verification, evidence and legal scrutiny.
The CCP’s system has been included in a global antitrust report by Stanford, which presents the experiences of 30 competition authorities from around the world.
To put the system into use, the commission has reached institutional understandings with federal and provincial procurement authorities and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP). The system is currently in an advanced stage of pre-implementation arrangements.
The CCP says the system will support fair competition in public procurement and help ensure better use of public resources.