MyCC chief executive officer Iskandar Ismail said investigations found that the companies colluded to share tenders, prepare documents with one another and manipulate the price in the tenders.

The winner of the tender also shared profits with the losing bidder.

“There was bid-rigging for three quotations and one tender offered by Aswara.

“In each bid, the companies formed a secret pact or cartel among them.

“Their action is detrimental to the government and strict action needs to be taken.

“A clear example is that the government actually needed to spend RM100 million for one contract, but because of the bid-rigging, the government had to pay RM150 million, thus incurring a loss of RM50 million,” he told a press conference here today.

He said bid rigging is a serious offence under the Competition Act 2010 and urged those with information on it to report the matter.