Nearly 200 MoDOT and Federal Highway Administration workers gathered Jan. 19 in Columbia for a first-of-its kind seminar on detecting and preventing antitrust practices among Missouri road contractors.
Nationwide, the road building industry has the highest number of defendants in antitrust cases – more than the next six largest types of antitrust cases combined.
“Part of being a good steward of taxpayer dollars is making sure bid-rigging and fraud don’t happen,” Director Pete Rahn told the group. “I want MoDOT to have a reputation for rooting out this sort of abuse.”
MoDOT is one of just a handful of state DOTs that have an active program for detecting fraud and abuse in the contracting community. Techniques used in the program include computer bid models and fraud and economic analyses.
“Employees can be our eyes and ears to help detect these abuses,” said Turner Bond, who heads the department’s antitrust program. “Missouri should be an environment where honest contractors have a chance to make a good living. Our program exists to encourage good competition on all our projects.”
An attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice used case studies to demonstrate fraud and bid rigging around the country, showing participants how to avoid similar occurrences in Missouri.
