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US Department of Justice Launches Procurement Collusion Strike Force

The new DOJ Procurement Collusion Strike Force is a joint law enforcement effort that will combat antitrust crimes and related fraudulent schemes that impact government procurement, grant, and program funding such as price fixing.

The Strike Force consists of prosecutors from the Antitrust Division, prosecutors from a number of U.S. Attorneys’ Offices around the country, and investigators from the FBI and four major federal Offices of Inspector General.

When competitors in any given industry collude and conspire to rig bids, fix prices, or allocate markets—that is, commit criminal antitrust violations—they distort the free market and harm customers with high prices and lower quality goods and services.  This is no less true in the area of public procurement, where the customer is the government and the American taxpayer foots the bill for artificially high prices.

-Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim

The PCSF plans to work with US attorney’s offices in the Central and Eastern Districts of California; the District of Colorado; the District of Colombia; the Southern District of Florida; the Northern District of Georgia; the Northern District of Illinois; the Eastern District of Michigan; the Southern District of New York; the Southern District of Ohio; the Eastern District of Pennsylvania; the Northern District of Texas; and the Eastern District of Virginia.

Given that one out of every 10 dollars of federal spending is allocated to government contracting, the PCSF plans to attack The issue of price fixing in a two pronged effort. The first is to deter and prevent antitrust and related crimes on the front end of the procurement process through outreach and training.  The second objective is to effectively detect, investigate, and prosecute crimes that do occur through better coordination and partnership in the law enforcement and inspector general communities.

To this end, they have launched a public website featuring antitrust training materials and legal resources, as well as a citizen complaint form that members of the public can use to report suspected criminal violations affecting government procurement. 

www.justice.gov/procurement-collusion-strike-force

7 Responses to “US Department of Justice Launches Procurement Collusion Strike Force”

  1. Rudy Jewels says:

    I’m not even sure collusion is even a crime. I can’t find it defined in the US Code.

  2. Luke says:

    They should just peruse SSD and take tips from all the commenters who post about bribes and people on the take all the time. /sarcasm off

  3. Jeb says:

    Collusion may not be a defined “crime”. Then again, many “criminal” violations do not fall under the legal definition of crime. No victim – no crime. Used to be, for a “crime” to exist there must be a victim who suffered physical or monetary damage. Nowadays, you can be charged with a “crime” for offending someone. So can collusion be colluded to conspiracy? Without a doubt. I haven’t looked through my 10th Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary in awhile but may be inclined now.

  4. bloke_from_ohio says:

    Good luck boys! I hope you like tilting at windmills. Collusion as define by the AAG appears to be a business strategy.

    There is no “real” free market in defense. Maybe when you are looking at small arms, or nylon gear there is competition, but if you get much beyond man pack goodies the field is just too small. How many companies can really make a fighter jet or a heavy bomber? How many of those companies have the geographical and legislative/lobbyist footprint to compete against Boeing and Lockheed even if they can make those systems? Further, how big is the customer base in the defense industry (outside stuff you can sell to civilians)? Defense is still a market of sorts, but it is not a free market in most senses of the word.

    The US used to have a bunch of companies who made aircraft, tanks, vehicles, and the like. Now we have a handful of manufacturers in each category. Even where there is notional competition, the big boys subcontract to one another to spread the money and jobs around. In some cases that sharing of work is truly required since the winner might not have the skills, or the capability to do the part of the contract they sub out in house.

    This is what happens when the market congeals into a couple big companies that gobble up their competitors.

  5. Bobby Davro says:

    What are the strike forces capabilities? UAV’s? Black ops accountants? On a serious note surely any impropriety between govt and industry in regard to govt supply contracts is under the investigative remit of the FBI?