Cape Town — The Competition Commission was considering 98 applications for leniency under its corporate leniency policy, Parliament heard yesterday, with the majority of the applications having come from companies involved in supplying the government.

During the second quarter, the commission received 23 new applications for leniency, bringing the total number to 98. The fact that more companies are coming forward voluntarily to declare their involvement in anticompetitive behaviour could be seen as evidence of the commission's growing effectiveness.

Addressing members of the portfolio committee on economic development, commission head Shan Ramburuth said the corporate leniency policy, aimed at eradicating and preventing cartel and collusive activities, had saved the commission "lots of money and time" that would have otherwise had to be used to undertake investigations.

"In a situation where there is a cartel or collusion, the first member of the cartel who comes forward with evidence in this regard gets immunity from prosecution," Mr Ramburuth said. "The policy also incentivises the remaining members of the cartel to settle with us."

Mr Ramburuth said the commission was investigating 166 cases, with 63 complaints coming from the public in the quarter to June. Two cases had been referred to the Competition Tribunal for prosecution and 34 cases were being prepared for referral to the tribunal.

The commission had also been working closely with the Treasury in an effort to fight bid-rigging in public procurement. The Treasury recently introduced a certificate of independent bid determination, which requires all bidders for government tenders to sign a certificate confirming that they have not been involved in bid-rigging in the contract.

Mr Ramburuth said that together with the Treasury, the commission had tried to increase awareness about collusive behaviour in public procurement processes and had assisted procurement agents in detecting collusion.

During the three months to June, Keystone Milling and Masana Petroleum Solutions reached consent agreements after being found guilty of price fixing. Keystone Milling paid an administrative penalty of R6,7m and Masana Petroleum paid a penalty of R13m.