Competition register
The competition register is an electronic database that is kept to protect competition for public contracts and concessions . With the entry into force of the Competition Register Act (WregG) on July 29, 2017, there is a competition register at federal level; the administrative authority is the Federal Cartel Office. It provides clients within the meaning of Section 98 of the Act against Restraints of Competition (GWB) with information about reasons for exclusion within the meaning of Sections 123 and 124 GWB. Companies are entered in the register for which there is evidence of the criminal offenses that can be attributed to them or other serious legal violations that constitute reasons for exclusion from participation in procurement procedures. The law enforcement authorities as well as those federal and state authorities that are responsible for prosecuting administrative offenses transmit information about these reasons for exclusion to the registry authority.
Public procurement is particularly vulnerable to white-collar crime. Before awarding a contract, the contracting authorities, sector contracting authorities and concession givers are therefore obliged to check whether there are reasons for the exclusion from participation in procurement procedures with regard to the potential contractor or concessionaire. So far, however, it has been difficult for contracting authorities to check whether there are grounds for exclusion from potential contractors. Because with such a check, the client is dependent on external information.
Against this background, several countries have passed laws on so-called corruption registers in their area of responsibility or introduced corruption registers by decree in order to combat white-collar crime in public procurement. The differences between the individual state registers - especially with regard to the legal basis, the offenses to be recorded and the registration requirements as well as reporting and querying obligations - are considerable.
There are currently corruption registers in
- Baden-Württemberg (by decree),
- Bavaria (by decree),
- Berlin (Act on the establishment and maintenance of a register of companies suspected of corruption in Berlin of April 19, 2006),
- Bremen (Bremen law on the establishment and maintenance of a corruption register dated May 17, 2011),
- Hamburg (Law on the establishment of a register to protect fair competition of December 1, 2013),
- Hesse (by decree),
- Rhineland-Palatinate (by decree),
- Schleswig-Holstein (law on the establishment of a register to protect fair competition of November 29, 2013) and
- North Rhine-Westphalia (Law to improve the fight against corruption and to set up and maintain a procurement register in North Rhine-Westphalia of December 16, 2004).
In the Brandenburg Public Procurement Act, a central listing of order blocks is provided. The European Commission has already introduced a central exclusion database (ZAD) since January 1st, 2009, in which all legal persons (legal persons, organizations and natural persons) are recorded who, when awarding contracts by EU institutions due to serious professional misconduct or criminal offenses run counter to the financial interests of the EU, are no longer allowed to receive funding from the EU.
The competition register can ensure that all clients nationwide are equally aware of offenses committed by the bidders.
Individual evidence
- ↑ § 2 of the Competition Register Act of July 18, 2017 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 2739 ).
- ↑ a b c d e BT-Drs. 18/12051