This week, the Competition Commission of Singapore (CCS) issued its first ever bid-rigging fine to six pest control firms. The companies were found guilty of coordinating their bids for six extermination contracts and rotating which firm would offer the lowest. They were caught after email exchanges between senior managers of the firms were included among documents bidding for a termite extermination project at Raffles Hotel in Singapore. After telling two of the firms to bid over $168,000 Singapore Dollars (SGD), one manager ended the email with, “Thank you for your support and owe you guys.” An alert procurement officer noticed the exchanges and reported them to the CCS.

The six firms involved were Aardwolf Pestkare; Alliance Pest Management; Elite Pest Management; Killem Pest (wins the award for the best name of the bunch); PestBusters and Rentokil Initial Singapore. The fines ranged from SGD$4,000 to SGD$96,400 (which comes out to approximately US$3,000 – $65,000) based on the level of cooperation with the commission, according to the CCS. A spokesperson for Rentokil Initial, which received the steepest fine, said his company had cooperated fully with the inquiry.

The Competition Commission of Singapore was established in 2005, but this was the first resolved case of bid-rigging in its history. The CCS devoted six investigators and one year’s time to the case, which began in 2006. The firms were given six weeks to digest the findings, but none challenged the case in the end.