Competition enforcement: top agencies develop consensus on focussing priority areas

The representatives of leading competition agencies on Friday mutually developed consensus on focussing priority areas of public procurement, state aid/loans, strengthening policy laws, administrative and financial autonomy, active role of stakeholders and advocacy for public awareness.
On the conclusion of the two-day international conference on the "Competition Enforcement Challenges & Consumer Welfare in Developing Countries" organised by the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) in collaboration with Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF)/USAID, CCP Chairperson, Rahat Kaunain Hassan shared outcome of the conference with the heads of the international competition agencies.
Heads and top officials of the competition authorities of over 50 countries shared their experiences to deal with the cartels, collusive bidding in public procurements and anti-competitive behaviour have negative impact on the general consumers. The CCP Chairperson said that public procurement is on the priority list of many competition agencies due to phenomenon of the collusive bidding in such procurements.
The issue of public procurements needs to be addressed on the top priority basis. Our procurement authorities have no enforcement tools and they cannot impose penalty in cases of violations of the public procurements rules. The public procurement laws are defective which needs to be improved. The implementation and enforcement of the public procurement laws is very difficult due to lack of enforcement powers by procurement authorities. In Pakistan, there are over 400 public procurement agencies.
Some of the heads of the international competition agencies also highlighted the role of the leniency law in their respective jurisdictions. In order to detect cartels, leniency laws could be used as a big tool to check cartelisation and anti-competitive behaviour. One of the danger zone areas is the corruption and collusion by the anti-competitive forces.
Rahat Kaunain further said that the issue of informal sector also remained focus of discussion during the conference besides public procurements and cartelisation. The issue is that how to control the informal sector in the country. Pakistan is facing problems in the informal sectors which are hindering competition. Businesses and investors are asking the competition agency of Pakistan that what the concerned authorities are doing to deal with the informal sector which is hurting competition. She said that Pakistan is also facing problem of the state aid, which is pointing towards limited use of loans.
On the second and last day of the Conference, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, was the chief guest. It was also attended by Hafeez Shaikh, Federal Finance Minister, Andrew Sisson, Co-ordinator for Economic & Development Assistance, Embassy of the United States, Islamabad, Ms Rahat Kaunain Hassan, Chairperson of the Competition Commission of Pakistan, and Shahab Khawaja, Chief Executive Officer of the Competitiveness Support Fund/USAID besides the international and local panellists and participants along with CCP officials.
On the second day of the Conference, two sessions were held on State Aid and Distortion in Competition, and Public Procurement and Collusive Bidding Affecting Consumer Welfare. The Session on "State Aid and Distortion in Competition" was chaired and moderated by Dr Nadeem ul Haq, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, and its panelists included Miek Van der Wee, Head of Unit, International Relations, DG Comp, European Commission, Dr Joseph Wilson Member, Competition Commission of Pakistan, Professor Kriengsak Chareonwongsak, President, Institute of Future Studies for Development, Bangkok, Thailand, Pradeep Mehta Secretary General, Consumer Unity and Trust Society, India, Ali Demiroz, Turkish Competition Authority & Board Member of the State Aids Monitoring and Supervision Board, Turkey.
The session on Public Procurement and Collusive Bidding Affecting Consumer Welfare, was chaired and moderated by Shahab Khawaja, CEO, Competitiveness Support Fund, and its panellists included Abdul Ghaffar, Member, Competition Commission of Pakistan, and Dr Kusha Haraksingh, Chairman, Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Competition Commission.
On first day of the Conference, three sessions were held on Challenges for Competition Agencies to Deal with Cartels and Cartels in Disguise and; Deceptive Marketing & Consumer Protection; Lessons Learnt and Sharing of Country Experiences in Advocacy and Enforcement.
Presentations were given by Manuel Sebastiao President, Portuguese Competition Authority, Halil Baha Karabudak, Advisor to Chairman, Turkish Competition Authority, Turkey, Dr Paulo Burnier da Silveira, Head of International Affairs, CADE, Brazil, Khalid Mirza, Former Chairman, Competition Commission of Pakistan, Russell Damtoft, Associate Director, Office of International Affairs, US Federal Trade Commission, Dr Huma Bukhari, President, Consumers Forum, Karachi, Tounakti Khalifa, Director-General, Tunisian Competition Council, Ms Halima Bensouda Morocco, Dr Robert Ian McEwin, Professor, National University, Singapore.