Accompanied by "professional households"
□ Reporter Fan Tianjiao
□ Wang Tao, an intern in this newspaper
"The company has a second-level qualification for construction enterprises, and the cost of accompany bids is 5000-20000 yuan.
The “three no-persons” who do not have the qualifications of construction enterprises, no physical companies, and no construction teams have solicited bidding customers in WeChat groups, tailor-made bids for each other, and provide accompany bidding and bidding services, regardless of whether they win or not. Considerable "appearance" fees.
Recently, a reporter from the Legal Daily learned from the High-tech Branch of the Public Security Bureau of Hefei City, Anhui Province that the Bureau successfully detected an illegal collusion in bidding and destroyed a “professional accompany gang”, which was also the first time that Anhui destroyed this type of criminal gang.
"Solicit Business" in WeChat Group
At the end of 2019, the Economic Investigation Team of the High-tech Branch of the Hefei Public Security Bureau received a report: a man named Zhang Moucheng, who has been engaged in collusive bidding with others for a long time.
The whistleblower is a staff member of a construction company and a victim of the "siege" of Zhang Moucheng and others. According to this clue, the police launched an investigation and soon discovered that Zhang Moucheng and others participated in the bidding but had no physical company, lacked relevant qualifications, and had no construction team.
"Behind Zhang Moucheng is a professional accompaniment group, they obtained the qualifications of four construction companies in other provinces through paid agents, and recruited personnel to specialize in accompany the bidding business." The policeman who handled the case said that this professional group was active in "Hefei" Every day in the “tender group” WeChat group, someone will publish information on bidding and bidding to find target customers.
Once a customer is contacted, the gang members will communicate with them online to determine their initial intentions, and then discuss specific details such as specific costs, tender production, whether advances are made, and whether bids will be presented on site by telephone or WeChat. According to the request of the other party, the gang will produce a bid, and participate in the public bidding of municipal engineering projects in the name of the agent’s construction company, and implement accompanying bids and surrounding bids.
After the bidding, the gang can get a lot of income regardless of whether it wins the bid or not. "If you win the bid, you can transfer the project to the sponsor with an agency fee of 1%-2% according to the prior agreement. If you do not win the bid, you will be charged an "appearance fee" ranging from 5,000 yuan to 20,000 yuan according to the prior agreement." Police handling the case said.
Since 2017, the gang has accompanied 185 bids in the city of Hefei, of which 44 have helped the same person with the bid, 4 won the bid, and the amount of the bid was more than 50 million yuan.
Gang crime professional
As a companion "professional household", in order to satisfy customers, the criminal gang led by Zhang Mou focused on improving the professionalism of the means of committing crimes, and "dilute" the traces of passing the scene. Making a bid is an important part of showing its professionalism.
According to the police, Zhang Moucheng recruited professional tender production staff. The tender production staff participated in the production of tenders, and also participated in on-site bidding and other links to ensure the smooth implementation of accompanying bids and surrounding bids. In order to avoid similarities and reduce the rate of scrapped bids, Zhang Moucheng also specially arranged different bidding makers to correspond to four different agencies or cooperative companies to accurately meet the diversified needs of users. After negotiating the price with the customer, the bid maker will make the bid in accordance with the requirements of the bid document and the actual bid content.
In addition to the bid-making staff, the group also has a dedicated "salesman" team, responsible for entering the major construction bidding WeChat groups, publishing information in the group, soliciting business, and understanding the customer's bid price, required company qualifications, performance, etc. According to requirements, tailor-made bidding and surrounding bidding schemes can be customized, and architects can also be arranged if necessary. There are more than 30 related WeChat groups in the mobile phones of Zhang Moucheng's gang members, with up to a thousand members.
The police investigation found that this group of bidders had already exhibited professional characteristics, and formed a complete system of bosses, salespersons, bid maker, bid openers, etc., mainly for construction projects that were openly tendered by the government. Professional matters, effectively avoid the generation of waste standards".
Occupational standards disrupt the market
After careful investigation, the police figured out the criminal facts of Zhang Moucheng and others, and implemented an arrest operation in January of this year, arresting 12 gang members and taking criminal coercive measures in one fell swoop, and then cracked 3 related cases through the case. Ten people took coercive measures.
"If you don't go around the bidding, some companies don't want to win the bid once a year." Zhang Moucheng confessed after his arrest that every collusive bid will involve a large amount of the bid and a lucrative project. Some qualified enterprises have developed to a certain level. After the stage, no longer undertake specific engineering projects, but rely on the sale of qualifications for profit, which gives the professional bidders the space to survive and operate, they and qualified companies hit it off, and jointly profiteering.
Professional bidders generally cooperate with construction companies in other provinces and cities, and pay cooperation fees or pay agency fees in packs. In order to reduce risks, professional bidders usually do not register companies to carry out business, but some enter the market for a short time and will set up branch companies for a short time, and immediately cancel after obtaining access qualifications. In this case, Zhang Achievement established Anhui Branch of a company in Northwest China and immediately cancelled it after obtaining the qualification to enter the Anhui market.
Bidding, companion bidding and other illegal and criminal acts have seriously disrupted the normal bidding and bidding order. "During the bidding process, if no professional company and construction personnel's professional accompany bidder wins the bid, it will inevitably lead to subsequent subcontracting and illegal subcontracting, which will cause the profits of the downstream construction party to be deprived by layers, and the downstream construction party wants to Monetization may reduce costs and cut corners, which will lead to bean curd projects and unqualified projects." The policeman who handled the case introduced that the original qualified enterprises could not win the bid or the bidding was difficult. This part of the company may also seek a career in order to survive. Accompanying bidders to cooperate, resulting in "bad money expelling good money" in the entire bidding market.
The reporter learned that since September last year, the Hefei police have concentrated on special operations against collusive bidding crimes. In the special operation, the High-tech Branch of the Hefei Public Security Bureau cracked 15 criminal cases of collusion in bidding and bidding, smashed seven collusive bidding gangs, and arrested more than 60 criminal suspects, with a total amount of about 1 billion yuan.