• Journal of architectural history
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.19-39
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• 2006

This study deals with construction contract bid-rigging by Japanese contractors who monopolized the construction market of the Korean Peninsula during the Japanese colonial rule, and investigates the abuses of the contract bid-rigging. First of all, construction contract bid-rigging in Korea was triggered by Japanese construction contractors and contract brokers, who had savored the benefits of bidrigging in Japan and had repeated the bid-rigging in Korea since 1903. Second, the agency played a significant role to mediate construction contractors, and existed throughout the Japanese colonial rule on the Korean Peninsula with changing their names. Most of them were engaged in major contract bid-rigging scandals. Among them was Construction Association of Korea, which existed for over 13 years. The agencies had took part in governmental services since the mid-1930s when Japan exploited Korean people during wartime, and focused on sweating human resources for the constructions. Third, one of the biggest construction bid-rigging scandals during the Japanese colonial rule was "the 1st and 2nd scandal on Daegu construction contract bid-rigging." Indeed, the second scandal paved the way for the serial scandals: "Kyeongseong construction contract bid-rigging scandal", "Busan construction contract bid-rigging scandal", and other cases throughout the nation. Fourth, along with the contract bid-rigging cases related to the Japanese Government-General of Korea and local authorities, bid-riggings firmly took rooted in local governments' farmland reclamation projects in the 1920s and the poor relief services in the 1930s. The "bid-rigging charges" forced contractors to compensate their losses with exploiting material costs and labor costs, generating serious problems. The construction contract bid-rigging enabled Japan to monopolize the construction industry and to sweat farmers on the Korean Peninsula. Against this backdrop, contract bid-rigging by Japanese construction contractors during the its colonization made Korean contractors ruled out, and helped Japanese monopolize the industry. A large amount of bid-rigging charges drove Japanese contractors to do fraudulent work with cheap materials and to exploit Korean labor force.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2015.10a
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• pp.712-713
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• 2015

In recent years, the bid-rigging in public construction markets has been treated as a critical issue in Fair Trade Commission. The investigation revealed that the collusion was implemented extensively in every area from the material supply to the construction service of general contractors. This study reviewed the causes of the bid-rigging in public construction projects, and proposed the improvement plan to eradicate bad practices. Firstly, the causes and purposes of bid-rigging were categorized into two types of internal factors from construction companies and external environment factors influencing business activities. Secondly, the system development method was explained to detect the signs of bid-rigging based on the technical proposal documents in open tender. The detection systems of repetitive public owner also provide the function of sharing data on the companies and cases to violate the fair trade regulation. In addition, the problems and improvement direction of public procurement policies were discussed.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.36-44
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• 2023

The aim of this study is to predict the potential for bid-rigging among public construction bidders and develop preventive and responsive measures. By employing the Fraud Triangle Theory (FTT), which considers the factors of opportunity, pressure, and rationalization, we analyze and explore the bid-rigging potential among construction industry professionals. A survey is conducted among General and specialized construction firms to validate the FTT research model and predict individual bid-rigging tendencies. The results indicate that higher levels of pressure, greater opportunities, and stronger rationalization increase the likelihood of individual bid-rigging. Moreover, more opportunities and stronger rationalization also raise the potential for bid-rigging by others. Understanding these dynamics enhances our knowledge and contributes to the development of policies aimed at preventing bid-rigging.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.23-31
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• 2024

This study highlights the importance of understanding the fair bidding behavior of bid practitioners in order to eliminate bid-rigging, which has a detrimental impact on the construction industry and the overall economy. The research collected survey data from bid practitioners in the Daegu and Gyeongbuk regions of South Korea and analyzed the causal relationships between attitudes towards bid-rigging, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and the intention to engage in fair bidding using PLS-SEM analysis. The analysis results confirm that attitudes towards bid-rigging and perceived behavioral control are significant variables predicting the intention to engage in fair bidding among bid practitioners. This indicates that bid practitioners' perceptions of bid-rigging and personal behavioral control influence their willingness and actions towards fair bidding. The insights gained from this research provide valuable insights into bid practitioners' behavioral changes and can aid in the development of policies and measures to promote fair bidding and prevent bid-rigging.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.1053-1061
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• 2017

The study is concerned with providing the improvement method on making a reasonable and scientific decision on the damages accrued from the bid rigging in the construction work. According to the review on the precedent studies and decision cases on the damages caused by bid rigging, the representative problems include the insufficiency of the classification system on the damage calculation method and the omission of the necessary stage in the damage determination process. First, the improved classification system on calculating the damages caused by bid rigging is presented with the application to the bid rigging in the construction work by adding the ratio factor in addition to the damage calculation parameters such as price and cost. Second, the standard procedures organized with six stages is presented as the process required for determining the damages if the indemnification for bid rigging is claimed. The study becomes the foundation for resolving the problem with the undue burden on a party and for preventing the opportunity loss by resolving a dispute early through the improvement classification system and standard procedures presented in the study.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.75-83
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• 2024

This study examined the causes and remedies of bid-rigging in the construction industry through a survey of procurement practitioners. The study identified potential problems from the business, construction, and bidding environments, and proposed improvements to the procurement and bidding systems to address these problems. The study found that transparency, fairness, and diversity are important factors in reducing bid-rigging. These factors can be achieved through a variety of measures, such as expanding bidding systems, strengthening fairness standards, and increasing the diversity of participating companies. The study also found that unfair subcontracting regulations are a problem that needs to be addressed. There were differences in the perceptions of the causes of bid-rigging between the general and specialized construction groups. However, there was no difference in the perceptions of improvements to the procurement system between the two groups. This suggests that a consistent solution to bid-rigging can be found. The study's findings are expected to contribute to the resolution and prevention of bid-rigging in the construction industry.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society of Information Technology Applications Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.247-250
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• 2005

Recently, a concept of bid-rigging is issued in electronic auction. To prevent this attack, Abe-Suzuki proposed firstly receipt-free scheme based on bidding-booth. Chen-Lee-Kim pointed out that Abe-Suzuki's scheme only provides receipt-freeness for losing bidders. Also, they introduced a new receipt-free sealed bid auction scheme using the homomorphic encryption technique. The main participants of their scheme are Auctioneer, Auction Issuer, Bidder and Seller. Bid-rigging can happen by a seller in their scheme. We propose receipt-free sealed-bid auction scheme using a universal re-encryption mixnet. For our receipt-free sealed-bid auction, we use Pseudo ID of a bidder and universal re-encryption technique of Golle et al. Also, our scheme satisfies privacy, correctness, public verifiability, non-reputation, and receipt-freeness.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.741-749
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to propose a rational and scientific damage calculation model in relation to damages caused by bid rigging in construction projects. Previous studies and precedents in relation to calculating damages from bid rigging suggest that the main issue was the lack of consideration in standards for deciding successful bids, selection of inadequate standard comparative markets, insufficiency in analyzing the appropriateness of competitive bid price influence factors, and absence of calculation model verification. In order to improve on these issues, a damage calculation method on alternative tenders for construction projects was proposed. For this calculation model, first, a standard market adequate to the successful bid selection standards was determined, second, an appropriate factor was selected by analyzing the correlation between competitive bid price influence factors, and third, a regression analysis was conducted on the selected factor. Lastly, this was demonstrated through verification of appropriateness, significance & normality of the proposed model and application of actual bid rigging cases. Through the proposed calculation model, this study seeks to serve as a base to prevent opportunity damages for parties involved in related court cases by early resolution of disputes and relief from issues of unfair damage burdens on a particular party.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.50-58
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• 2023

Bid-rigging is a common issue in public construction projects, and appropriate sanctions are required from the relevant authorities. This study analyzes the need for an optimal enforcement model to prevent bid-rigging by considering both civil and criminal aspects. Recently, there have been overlapping sanctions under the Fair Trade Act, such as fines imposed by the Fair Trade Commission and civil lawsuits filed by the client for damages. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of penalty surcharges and compensation systems for preventing bid-rigging, and to consider the possibility of overlapping sanctions in public construction projects. It was found that overlapping sanctions under the Fair Trade Act can be helpful in improving the system. However, in cases where the state is the plaintiff for damages in a lawsuit, it is necessary to consider the penalty surcharge and sentence, reduce the penalty surcharge for joint acts, refund the surcharge after a final judgment, and consider the damage compensation system when imposing a surcharge. This study contributes to the development of an efficient enforcement model to suppress bid-rigging in public construction projects by analyzing the improvement effects of sanctions and compensation.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.52-60
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• 2018

Korea's public construction projects are under construction through bidding, however, due to the nature of the bidding, collusion between participants can occur. The collusion of bids accordingly damages the client. So, it is necessary to calculate the appropriate fictitious competition price to compensate for this. In this regard, econometrics methods are generally used, but there are limitations and issues arising from the nature of construction, especially design-build bid. Therefore, this study proposes a method to estimate reasonable competitive bid-price in design-build bid. It derives the lowest bid-price from the design submitted by the proponent and estimates the competitive bid-price by examining the factors according to the penetration rate according to the technical level of the tester, the skill level of the competitor, and the type of tester. Based on the method proposed in this study, a reasonable price can be derived that reflects the characteristics of the design and construction bidding bidder selection method and also it can be used as a reference material in the actual bidding process as well as calculating the damage due to the answer.