A criminal investigation into the “potential rigging” of contracts connected to school-transport schemes operating in Munster and Leinster is being carried out by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC).

The commission has also encouraged would-be whistleblowers connected to any cartel-like behaviour in the area of public transport to make contact with it on a confidential basis and issued a reminder that an immunity programme exists for the “first member of a cartel” who comes forward and agrees to help the CCPC with an investigation.

Bus Éireann receives a subvention from the State of about €170 million each year to run its school transport system and employs multiple subcontractors across all 26 counties to operate services to 3,000 schools facilitating the transportation of 115,000 children.

The commission declined to give precise details about the nature of the current investigation or the companies involved other than to confirm that it has been looking into “potential bid rigging in the procurement of publicly-funded transport services” in Tipperary, Waterford, Limerick and Kilkenny.

It said it opened its investigation in 2016 following a detailed examination of a complaint it received.

Search warrants

As part of its follow-up investigation, the CCPC obtained and executed search warrants to gather evidence at 20 separate locations across the four counties in July of last year. The searches were carried out by authorised officers from the commission as well as uniformed gardaí and a detective sergeant from the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau.

The commission said that as its investigation was continuing it could not provide any further comment on the nature of its inquiries.

However, in what is seen as a bush-rattling exercise, it encouraged any individual with any evidence of bidding irregularities connected with publicly-funded transport services to contact its dedicated confidential helpline on 086 677 2062.

It also reminded any would-be whistleblowers that a cartel immunity programme is in place and operated jointly by commission and the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Avoid prosecution

The programme allows for any member of a cartel to avoid prosecution if they are the first member to come forward to reveal their involvement in illegal cartel activity and fully co-operate with the investigation.

“Markets work best where businesses vigorously and independently compete against each other for customers,” said commission chairwoman Isolde Goggin.

“Cartels, where businesses offering the same products or services collectively agree not to compete with one another or to fix prices, cause very significant harm to competition and consumers. Bid rigging in public procurement can be particularly harmful as it can artificially increase prices and ultimately costs taxpayers more and can reduce the quality of services the State provides,” she said.

She stressed that the CCPC was prioritising these investigations “and will take action if it finds evidence suggesting that these forms of criminal offences have taken place”.