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Building groups set for OFT fine
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is set to levy large fines on building firms at the close of its five-year probe into bid-rigging for contracts. The fines are expected to be between one and two per cent of group turnover, which is greater than the operating profit margins of most construction companies. The inquiry has looked at 112 firms, including major players such as Carillion, Balfour Beatty and Kier, beginning in 2004. The OFT received information which implicated scores more companies on thousands of tender processes at the time, but focussed its investigations on 240 alleged infringements.