OCR Text |
Show BUSINESS GRAFT ' REVEALED BY TRADE OFFICIALS The Federal Trade Commission has exposed collusive and fraudulent fraudu-lent bidding in connection with the rehabilitation of the Cramp Shipyard in Philadelphia. At the outbreak of the war, the Cramp Shipyard had been idle for several years. The owners lacked means to get it into commission and the Government, needing ships agreed to advance funds for the work. A contractor was engaged on a cost-plus fixed fee basis, with the understanding that he would obtain ob-tain competitive bids from "as many reputable firms as possible" and award contracts for the material ma-terial and equipment to the lowest low-est bidder. The Commission says that "on numerous . occasions thereafter," the contractor or his agent and various suppliers cooperated in the preparation of sham, false, fictitious, ficti-tious, fraudulent and non-competitive bids." The Commission used an elec- trie and supply company as an example ex-ample to show how the wool was pulled over the eyes of Navy agents1 ag-ents1 who supervised the work. This company, according to the Commission, obtained letterheads of other electrical concerns and used them to prepare and submit fictitious bids, forging the signatures signa-tures of officials of companies which were being used as blinds. The fake bids, of course, were invariably in-variably higher than those submitted sub-mitted by the company which got the business. |