Collusive Practices in Public Construction Projects: A Case of China

Collusion is a set of behaviours where competitors coordinate their market behaviour surreptitiously, which is contrary to the principles of free competition (Chotibhongs and Arditi 2012a, b; Zarkada-Fraser 2000). Collusion is also insidious and harmful to the management of construction projects because it may decrease the number of bidders and increase contract prices, thus resulting in a poor project outcome (Oladinrin and Ho 2014; Zarkada-Fraser and Skitmore 2000). Moreover, collusion has brought a ‘dirty’ image to the construction sector and degraded public trust on the sector (Zarkada-Fraser 2000).