This presentation by the UK Competition and Markets Authorities was made during a workshop on “Cartel screening in the digital era” held by the OECD in Paris on 30 January 2018. More papers and presentations on the topic can be found out at oe.cd/wcsde.

1. Developing a screening for cartels tool:
the UK experience (so far…)
OECD workshop on cartel screening in the digital era
30 January 2018
Kate Bridge & Heena Mistry
Competition and Markets Authority

2. ● Where we are and how we got here
● Tool demonstration
● Reflections
● Future of the tool
Agenda

3. Project
Initiation
Develop
tests and
methodology
Data
gathering /
processing
Package
and ‘soft
launch’
Publish,
disseminate
and review
3
“To design and test a methodology which can be applied to
information gathered by public sector procurement organisations in
order to identify potential anti-competitive behaviour amongst
public sector suppliers.”
• Contract 1: data science procurement
• Literature review, test identification
• Input from ICAs and UK partners
• Data challenges
• Testing to validate and calibrate
• Promote with
partners
• Review uptake
Overview of the story
• Contract 2: front end
development
• User feedback, tool refinement
• Challenges of government IT

4. Theme Indicators chosen (suggested weighting)
Number and
pattern of
bidders
• Low number of bidders (20)
• Single bid (30)
Suspicious
pricing
patterns
• Winning price is outlier (20)
• Similar pricing across bids (20)
• Costs appear to be made up (40)
Low
endeavour
submissions
• Same authors in two or more bids (200)
• Low endeavour losing bids (40)
• Similar text in losing bids (200)
Combination
tests
• Similar text and word count in losing bids (50)
• Low number of bidders and made up prices (20)
• Winning price is outlier and made up prices (10)
• Low endeavour losing bids and made up prices (10)
Our data screening tool looks for
suspicious signs

5. 5
Our distributed model is a result of
available data, but it has benefits
Key benefits of the distributed tool include:
● No need to share data
● Builds a user community to spread awareness and deterrence
● Better prospects of innovation, development, dissemination

6. 6
The tool needs basic bid data
organised in a folder structure
The data is organised into a folder
structure which is familiar to procurers
As the tool is automated, it is important
the folder structure matches exactly
because the tool reads the folder levels

7. 7
Input data
Adjustable
thresholds and
weightings for
the individual
tests
Results table
and suspicion
score
Folder path
The tool is easy and straight
forward to use

8. 8
The thresholds and weightings can
be adjusted to fit circumstances

9. 9
The results show which (if any) of
the tenders are most suspicious

10. 10
Uptake and feedback
Join the debate on the
GCF pages on
31 Local authorities
12 NHS trusts and emergency services
12 Whitehall departments
27 Private organisations
5 Universities
1 Charity
● Feedback has been mainly positive
● IT security and calibration issues were raised and
have been resolved in the latest version
● The number of requests to access the tool
continues to grow

11. 11
The tool is also being looked at by
29 national competition agencies

12. 12
Reflections on the process
(so far…)
● Project ran for longer than expected, need for longer-term
CMA resource commitment and team persistence!
● We required internal and external specialist expertise,
especially around data science and IT development
● Importance of managing expectations, internal and external,
acknowledging what the tool can and can’t do
● The availability and quality of third party data was crucial to
progress and shape of the project
● Benefits – raising awareness of risk of bid-rigging, building
relationships with stakeholders, helping procures spot and
stop cartels – derived from the process as well as the final
outcome

13. The tool is now part of our engagement with procurers, which
also includes:
● CMA/CCS e-learning module
● a short video
● a 60 second summary
But still some questions about its future:
● How is the tool being used?
● How do we capitalise on growing community of users?
● Review during 2018, what’s next?
Future of the CMA tool

14. ● Find out more about the tool
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/screening-for-
cartels-tool-for-procurers
● Kate Bridge
kate.bridge@cma.gsi.gov.uk
● Heena Mistry
heena.mistry@cma.gsi.gov.uk
Our contact details