Price fixing is the thin and of the wedge. My experience in construction is that corruption is rife, you become immune to it as an everyday part of the industry (that said the scale is apparently nothing like the aeronautical business - but then that’s sanctioned by government - BAE)

Price fixing is understandable in some circumstances ie. Not wanting to disappoint your client by not tendering - and some will punish you for it, but inflating prices of the lowest tender by collusion is fraud and is unhealthy.

There are many opportunities for the builder and sometimes, but rarely, the consultants to take advantage of the client, the builder also gets taken for a ride too quite a lot, but whats good for the goose......

Carl, Manchester,

Strange, I actually rang Balfour Beatty who were on a contract for Yorkshire Water six months ago to ask why they were digging up the same section of road for the third time in eighteen months casusing traffic mayhem. Answer there are three pipes down there and we can only repair one at a time. I now understand that what he meant was there was one job that required three payments for.

Cromwell, Leeds, England

Make a false claim for housing benefit/JSA and you can expect a court appearance, criminal record, fine and possibly prison.

Defraud the taxpayer by millions by rigging prices and you can expect a fine, but not a single person will see the inside of a court never mind a prison cell.

And they say justice is blind.

James, Leeds,

What about the private property market? aren't these the same firms that own most of the land in the UK, and its homes? and the property agencies?

Fernando, London, UK,

Don't be so shocked... it goes on in ever yindustry and country... We look down our noses at African corruption but they just aint as slick as us!!

JamesG, shanghai,

Reminds of a thirld world African country.

navraj arora, Heston, U.K.

Surprise surprise.

Farrukh, Woking, UK

It is time that heads should roll. This is criminal activity on a grand scale.

mark gould, london, uk

The company directors of these firms live in a grand style and now we find that they have been stealing money from every ordinary Joe in the country. This Joe is hoping that fines will be severe, and can recoup all the money we have lost. 10% of worldwide turnover was what they knew they were gambling with after all.

Kevin Adam, Aberdeen, Scotland

What about the rail industry? Many of these firms - including Carillion and Balfour Beaty mentioned here - have contracts on our railways.
I wonder if they do the same here. It would explain the fantastically large amounts paid to them....

Roger Bower, Norwich,

Now we see the real benefits of PFI in Local Government and that is even before the price escalator that is built in to PFI once the contract has been agreed.

There is an apocryphal story that if the Lothian Health Board had put the cost of the new Edinburgh Royal Infirmary on their credit cards it would have cost less than the PFI contract they ended up with.

Time to ditch PFI and go back to local authority bonds.

Peter Thomson, Kirkcudbright, Scotland

Why do you think Latham in the early nineties and then Egan later, said we should abandon competetive tendering??? No-body listened.

Tony Smith, King's Lynn, Norfolk

Goverments way to make money.

OFT have been planning this for a while. National disgrace.

John Baker, newport,

Excuse me for being a tad pessimistic, but I'd rather see the regulatory authorities crow about their achievements AFTER successful action against transgressors, not at the outset of proceedings. I don't think we'll hear much if these actions ultimately fail as they usually do.

Still, it's a start, I suppose. Until we have really punitive action against cartel/monopoly abusers along US lines, this will always be rip-off Britain.

Now may we have some real action against the real dastards - the privatised utilities that not only put two fingers up to the British consumer but poke him in the eye as well. The wouldn't dare operate as they do in Britain in , say, the US. Quite a few chief executives could find themselves doing bird.

jonathan spencer, London, UK

Even quite small projects are extremely expensive when contracted by local governments. Absurd figures for pelican crossings, simple road engineering changes and countless others lead me to conclude that no one is even slightly interested in value for money in this area. One option might be to include EU firms in compulsory tendering, as I suspect that basic infrastructure items are far, far cheaper there.

Leaving inexeperienced and often poor quality local authority managers with an unlimited supply of public money to make contracts with construction firms is a recipe for very high costs, which is exactly where we are.

Colinc, shrewsbury,

A friend of mine was made bankrupt after two construction companies (one is named above) simply declared that they weren't going to pay him.

Not only should the OFT apply the fines but the government should reclaim any padding on the tender prices.

Paul, Wellingborough, UK

Tim Carpenter Libertarian Party, UK 'We need Hospitals and Schools outside of State provision"

What like PFI and its others forms, thats worked well!?

I think an investigation into these projects would uncover much much more filth and bad practice.

By hook or by crook they will cover their risk.

Carl, Manchester,

Everyone would be very surprised with the amount of "kick-backs" paid to local authority members. These "kick-backs" are paid utilimately by the taxpayer.

Rob, London,

Wind up the OFT - what is the point of an investigation that takes four years.

Shaffiq Mahmood, Halifax, UK

How does a contractor find out who else is on the list? The plot thickens....

Carl, Manchester,

What do fines mean to these people? They should go to jail.

Tooter, leicester,

The tendering process invloves more than the builder,
questions must be asked of the cost consultants and other professionals employed by client to give advice on procurement routes tendering process and cost validation. The tendering sytem needs a complete review.

Michael , Coleraine,

A close friend of mine works for Connaught as a CORGI gas engineer and is on a very generous bonus scheme. I can now see how the comapny can pay such obsurd amounts of money if they are 'ripping people off' - Even the apprentices are eing paid triple what they would with any other company!!

Dafydd Roberts, Rhyl,

Enid is right. The «traffic d'influences» in the construcction sector includes consultants, often former poiticians and people with inside information and privileged access to the clients.

In Portugal, the issues was recently debated after a yet another former government minister was hired by a large contractor. There are dozen of cases here of politicians thatnow work for companies whose contracts they have signed when in office.

Construction ranks 'well' in the bribe payers index (which is a BAD thing) issued by transparency international.

Rui, Lisbon, Portugal

What's new, this sort of practice, along with individuals registering as self employed, whilst working full time for a building company, has been going on since WW2. All major construction companies see building contracts with Local Authorities and Government departments as a way of printing money with little, if any, financial risk to themselves. If the contractor runs out of money they just charge the relevant Authority more to complete the job, if the project falls behind schedule more taxpayers money is spent in order to complete it. Is it any wonder that corruption, price rigging and selective tendering is common place. In any private contract they would become liable for strict penalty clauses. A building friend once imparted to me that he would give his right arm to acquire a contract with his local council, becasue he could quote any figure and the council would just pay up without question. But other builders had a 'close' relationship with councillors, excluding him!!!.

pip, sutton, surrey

I wonder how many of the 112 companies have officials who subsequently have made donations to the Labour Party?

Bob , Swadlincote, uk

Do we need any more evidence as to why the State, simple shopper extreme, should not be doing all thee things for us? Decisions made by those spending other peoples' money are unlikely to be sound in the long run.

We need smaller government. We need Hospitals and Schools outside of State provision so the cost of building will affect the competitiveness of that school or hospital just like every other entity has to. They will keep a beadier eye, just as we all do.

Tim Carpenter
Libertarian Party, UK

Tim Carpenter, London, UK

This could explain why the cost of building the 2012 Olympics Stadium has shot up.

Mike Mitchell, Spalding, England

Well done civil service. This same process has pushed small local construction businesses out of the tendering rounds. Glad to see planned government action. Well done.

Dan, London,

If you force businesses to bid every time regardless of whether they have the finance, staff or ability to do the work then of course they are going to overbid for the work they dont want. It is the system that is wrong.

John Reekie, Egremont,

I just hope that the fines levied on the construction industry for ripping off taxpayers is in line with those recently issued to the utility companies. The companies concerned should then be struck off the list of tenders for public work.

Oxford Don, Oxford, UK

OFT Should also investigate those get rich councillors who take back handers from 'preferred ' contractors. This practice is rife

AFJ, Launay Villiers, france

A similar investigation is necessary for the MPs expenses

Michael, Doncaster, uk

For anybody on the client side this is a difficult scam to detect. 'Tender rings' at one time was more the rule than the exception but they are less obvious nowadays. The only way to defeat this practice is to regularly vary the the bidders list-not the same people everytime and put together in-house cost estmates of every item, labour and material in the contract. Post tender negotiation (PTN) will make it feel less cosy for bidders and keep your ears open for gossip around the industry

Ray Cobbett, Emsworth, Hants, England

What about the consultants employed at vast expense by public authorities to advise on contracts - shouldn't they be in the dock too?

Enid Barnett, Leeds,