The reporter learned from a press conference held by the Zhejiang Provincial Public Security Department on August 3 that the Wucheng police in Jinhua City have cracked a bid-rigging case, destroyed 6 "professional scalper" bid-rigging gangs entrenched in multiple locations, arrested 32 criminal suspects, and involved more than 1 billion yuan in case funds.

In early May 2023, the Wucheng Branch of the Jinhua Municipal Public Security Bureau discovered during its work that an enterprise named "Zhongyuan Construction Engineering Co., Ltd." was in an abnormal situation. After in-depth analysis, it was found that the company was suspected of illegal and criminal acts of bid rigging. The Wucheng police quickly filed a case and set up a special task force to carry out the investigation.

Preliminary investigation showed that in just 2 years the company had participated in bids for 338 engineering projects in total, far exceeding the scope of its business capacity. By obtaining the list of companies participating in bids for these 338 engineering projects, it was found that more than 60 companies were involved in clustered "bid rigging." After each tender announcement, funds similar to "qualification fees" flowed to the employee accounts of the above-mentioned more than 60 companies. In-depth investigation revealed that a bid-rigging gang led by Wang and other "professional scalpers" colluded with one another and organized hundreds of construction companies inside and outside Zhejiang Province to carry out bid rigging on 907 projects across the province.

On May 12, under the unified deployment of the higher-level public security organs, the Wucheng police carried out the first round of centralized arrests, destroying 6 "professional scalper" bid-rigging gangs hidden in Nanchang, Jiangxi; Nanning, Guangxi; and Hangzhou and Wenzhou, Zhejiang, among other places; arresting 22 criminal suspects and involving more than 1 billion yuan in case funds. In early July, the police carried out a second round of arrests, digging deeper and striking at 10 behind-the-scenes financiers and "professional scalpers."

Investigation found that criminal suspect Wang and others pleaded guilty to their criminal acts of suspected bid rigging. Through various means, they wantonly disrupted the normal order of the bidding field, illegally sold the subject matter after winning bids, and profited from it, seriously affecting market order. At present, the case is still under further investigation.

Further Reading

On May 12, under the overall guidance of the Zhejiang Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision, the Provincial Public Security Department held a province-wide public security organ video scheduling meeting to deploy the first centralized arrest operation of the special rectification of prominent problems in the bidding field. This operation was carried out simultaneously in 11 cities across the province. As of May 13, a total of 1,756 police officers had been dispatched, 85 criminal gangs had been dismantled, 298 criminal suspects had been arrested, and the total value involved was 5.074 billion yuan. Among them:

1. A case of suspected bid rigging by Yang and Mao and others, known as the province's "No. 1 in water conservancy," was cracked, 42 criminal suspects were arrested, 6 hideouts were destroyed, and the professional bid-rigging gang entrenched in the province's water conservancy projects was completely wiped out.

2. A "professional scalper" bid-rigging gang led by Wang and others was successfully destroyed. Relying on construction companies in Wucheng and Yiwu, the gang organized companies from other provinces such as Jiangxi, Henan, Fujian, and Guangxi to rig bids for engineering projects in Wucheng, Yiwu, Dongyang, and other places in Jinhua. At present, the police have arrested 55 criminal suspects and destroyed 7 hideouts.

The chaos existing in the bidding field has greatly damaged the fair and just market trading environment in the field of public resources in our province. In order to promote the further standardization of bidding work across the province and help the smooth implementation of the province's "No. 1 Reform Project" for optimizing and improving the business environment and the provincial government's "Ten Major Projects," the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision took the lead in organizing a special rectification of prominent problems in the bidding field across the province and coordinated relevant departments to carry out the work. The Provincial Public Security Department organized and carried out a special rectification action, using strikes to open the way, promote construction, and promote governance, severely cracking down on bid rigging and various other illegal and criminal activities, and promoting effective governance of prominent problems in the bidding field across the province.
This special rectification action focused on serving and safeguarding the "No. 1 Reform Project" for optimizing and improving the business environment and the overall situation of Hangzhou Asian Games security, focusing on cracking down on illegal and criminal acts such as collusion between insiders and outsiders, transfer of benefits, fraud, and bid rigging involving bidding agency institutions and "professional scalpers" in industries such as engineering construction, government procurement, and transportation and water conservancy, quickly forming a severe crackdown posture and resolutely curbing illegal and criminal bid-rigging activities.

Since the beginning of this year, in response to the market chaos in the province's bidding field, the Provincial Public Security Department has adhered to the concepts of using "small strikes" to promote "big governance," "small entry points" to serve "big development," and "small environments" to improve the "big environment." Together with the discipline inspection and supervision group stationed at the department, it has held many special meetings to deploy and promote the special rectification of prominent problems in the province's bidding field; persisted in digital empowerment, developed and applied bidding data monitoring and analysis models, and obtained a batch of key illegal and criminal clues on bid rigging; and persisted in advancing special cases. The public security organs of Hangzhou, Jiaxing, and Zhoushan respectively cracked a number of major and extraordinarily serious bid-rigging criminal cases involving dozens of projects, case values of billions of yuan, and dozens of people subject to criminal coercive measures. At the same time, in order to further strengthen the atmosphere of special strikes, two waves of "Thunder" centralized strike operations were organized and launched targeting the engineering construction field and the water conservancy engineering field, with public security organs at all levels across the province participating in the campaign, setting off a climax of special strikes. During this period, the Taizhou Municipal Public Security Bureau organized more than 160 police officers and formed 25 arrest teams to carry out centralized arrest operations in Taizhou, Hangzhou, Jiaxing, Zhoushan, Quzhou, and Huzhou in our province as well as Zhengzhou, Henan, and other places, cracking a case of suspected bid rigging by Yang and Mao and others, known as the province's "No. 1 in water conservancy," arresting 42 criminal suspects, destroying 6 hideouts, and completely wiping out the professional bid-rigging gang entrenched in the province's water conservancy projects. The Jinhua Municipal Public Security Bureau organized 220 police officers and successfully destroyed the "professional scalper" bid-rigging gang led by Wang and others. Relying on construction companies in Wucheng and Yiwu, the gang organized companies from other provinces such as Jiangxi, Henan, Fujian, and Guangxi to rig bids for engineering projects in Wucheng, Yiwu, Dongyang, and other places in Jinhua. At present, the police have arrested 55 criminal suspects and destroyed 7 hideouts, dealing a heavy blow to the "professional scalper" gang hiding in Jinhua.

At present, the crackdown on bid-rigging crimes is still being further carried out. Up to now, a total of 260 criminal cases of the bid-rigging category have been filed across the province, 177 criminal gangs have been dismantled, and 846 criminal suspects have been arrested. Public security organs across the province will continue to do a good job in process control, keep a close eye on case handling, and strive to promote comprehensive governance results, ensuring the optimization and upgrading of the province's bidding market environment and creating a nationally first-class business and investment environment.

Bidding Law of the People's Republic of China:

Article 32Bidders shall not collude with each other in bidding quotations, and shall not exclude other bidders from fair competition or harm the lawful rights and interests of the bid inviter or other bidders.

Bidders shall not collude with the bid inviter in bidding to harm the interests of the state, the public interest, or the lawful rights and interests of others.

Bidders are prohibited from seeking to win bids by offering bribes to the bid inviter or members of the bid evaluation committee.

Article 53Where bidders collude with each other in bidding or collude with the bid inviter in bidding, or where bidders seek to win bids by offering bribes to the bid inviter or members of the bid evaluation committee, the winning bid shall be invalid, and a fine of not less than 5 per thousand and not more than 10 per thousand of the amount of the winning project shall be imposed; the persons directly in charge of the unit and other persons directly responsible shall be fined not less than 5 percent and not more than 10 percent of the amount of the unit's fine; where there are illegal gains, the illegal gains shall be confiscated concurrently; where the circumstances are serious, their qualification to participate in bidding for projects that must be subject to bidding according to law shall be canceled for one to two years and an announcement shall be made, up to the revocation of the business license by the administrative department for industry and commerce; where a crime is constituted, criminal liability shall be pursued according to law. Where losses are caused to others, liability for compensation shall be borne according to law.

Regulations for the Implementation of the Bidding Law of the People's Republic of China (Decree No. 613 of the State Council):

Article 39Bidders are prohibited from colluding with each other in bidding.

Any of the following circumstances shall constitute bidders colluding with each other in bidding:

(1) Bidders negotiate with each other on the substantive contents of bid documents such as bidding quotations;

(2) Bidders agree among themselves on the winning bidder;

(3) Bidders agree among themselves that some bidders waive bidding or winning the bid;

(4) Bidders who are members of the same group, association, chamber of commerce, or other organization coordinate their bidding according to the requirements of that organization;

(5) Other joint actions taken by bidders among themselves to seek to win bids or to exclude specific bidders.

Article 40Any of the following circumstances shall be deemed as bidders colluding with each other in bidding:

(1) The bid documents of different bidders are prepared by the same unit or individual;

(2) Different bidders entrust the same unit or individual to handle bidding matters;

(3) The project management members stated in the bid documents of different bidders are the same person;

(4) The bid documents of different bidders are abnormally identical or the bidding quotations show regular differences;

(5) The bid documents of different bidders are mixed with each other;

(6) The bid bonds of different bidders are transferred from the accounts of the same unit or individual.

Article 41Bid inviters and bidders are prohibited from colluding in bidding.

Any of the following circumstances shall constitute collusion in bidding between the bid inviter and bidders:

(1) The bid inviter opens the bid documents before bid opening and discloses the relevant information to other bidders;

(2) The bid inviter directly or indirectly discloses to bidders information such as the base bid price and members of the bid evaluation committee;

(3) The bid inviter expressly or implicitly suggests that bidders lower or raise their bidding quotations;

(4) The bid inviter instructs bidders to replace or modify bid documents;

(5) The bid inviter expressly or implicitly suggests that bidders provide convenience for a specific bidder to win the bid;

(6) Other collusive acts taken by the bid inviter and bidders to seek the winning of the bid by a specific bidder.