{"id":"AIBD-0714","title":"The Swiss Federal Audit Office finds that COMCO's machine-learning screen for bid rigging in construction gave encouraging results in real cases","summary":"The Swiss Federal Audit Office found that COMCO's machine-learning screen for bid rigging in construction gave concrete, encouraging results in real cases. COMCO spends under CHF 10,000 a year on it.","date_observed":"2026-04-22","date_basis":"source publication","date_precision":"day","benefit_status":"reported","source_collection":null,"source_entry":null,"account":"Bid rigging in construction tenders raises prices by 45% on average, according to the 2024 annual report of the Swiss Competition Commission (COMCO). COMCO began building statistical screens in 2008 to find such cartels without tips. COMCO has used logistic regression since 2019 and random forests and neural networks since 2023. The method runs as a script, and specialists interpret its output. Staff decide whether to open an investigation. The Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO) audited the system in September and October 2025 and published its report on 22 April 2026. It found concrete and encouraging first results from the tool, which COMCO and its peers had tested and used in concrete cases. It listed effective detection of bid rigging, advice to public buyers and deterrence of bidders as advantages. It judged the system reliable in its results and noted that its development costs no more than CHF 10,000 a year. Yet COMCO uses the tool only about once a year, and it remains a prototype. 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Les premiers résultats de l’utilisation de l’outil intégrant l’IA montre des résultats concrets et encourageants quant à l’utilisation de la technologie de l’IA."}],"replication":{"produced_by":["COMCO combined classic statistical screens with machine learning on data from construction tenders.","Specialists who can interpret the results ran the script and reviewed its output."],"must_hold":["Cantons and communes must supply tender data, which they do mostly on a voluntary basis.","A person decides whether to open an investigation."],"echoes":[]},"paired_incident":null,"headline":"Swiss auditors find that COMCO's bid-rigging screen works at low cost","metric":null,"comparator":null,"later":null,"value":null,"developer_country":"Switzerland","deployer_country":"Switzerland","unrated_because":"The audit office found that the real added value of the tool is hard to quantify, because COMCO uses it rarely and has no measurement system.","brief_notes":null,"brief":null,"revisions":[{"date":"2026-10-31","change":"Added the record from the finding of the Swiss Federal Audit Office.","source":"https://www.efk.admin.ch/wp-content/uploads/publikationen/berichte/wirtschaft_und_verwaltung/informatikprojekte/25407/25407be-comco-rapport-utilisation-application-avec-ia.pdf","editor":"AIBD"}],"confidence":"found","shade":"high","claim_status":"Found by an auditor","claim_basis":"Sources: one independent audit report. 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COMCO spends under CHF 10,000 a year on it.","account":"Bid rigging in construction tenders raises prices by 45% on average, according to the 2024 annual report of the Swiss Competition Commission (COMCO). COMCO began building statistical screens in 2008 to find such cartels without tips. COMCO has used logistic regression since 2019 and random forests and neural networks since 2023. The method runs as a script, and specialists interpret its output. Staff decide whether to open an investigation. The Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO) audited the system in September and October 2025 and published its report on 22 April 2026. It found concrete and encouraging first results from the tool, which COMCO and its peers had tested and used in concrete cases. It listed effective detection of bid rigging, advice to public buyers and deterrence of bidders as advantages. It judged the system reliable in its results and noted that its development costs no more than CHF 10,000 a year. Yet COMCO uses the tool only about once a year, and it remains a prototype. 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COMCO began building statistical screens in 2008 to find such cartels without tips. COMCO has used logistic regression since 2019 and random forests and neural networks since 2023. The method runs as a script, and specialists interpret its output. Staff decide whether to open an investigation. The Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO) audited the system in September and October 2025 and published its report on 22 April 2026. It found concrete and encouraging first results from the tool, which COMCO and its peers had tested and used in concrete cases. It listed effective detection of bid rigging, advice to public buyers and deterrence of bidders as advantages. It judged the system reliable in its results and noted that its development costs no more than CHF 10,000 a year. Yet COMCO uses the tool only about once a year, and it remains a prototype. With no measurement system in place, the SFAO found the real added value hard to quantify.","replication":{"produced_by":["COMCO combined classic statistical screens with machine learning on data from construction tenders.","Specialists who can interpret the results ran the script and reviewed its output."],"must_hold":["Cantons and communes must supply tender data, which they do mostly on a voluntary basis.","A person decides whether to open an investigation."],"echoes":[]}}},"provenance":{"kind":"legacy_record","basis":"Editorial assignment.","record_fields":["account","replication"],"source_refs":[]},"review_state":"record_mapped","coverage":"partial"}},"summary":{"total":91,"addressed":91,"known":27,"reviewed":2,"reviewed_complete":2,"reviewed_partial":0,"record_mapped":25,"review_not_assessed":64,"not_assessed":0,"complete":false,"by_state":{"value_present":27,"not_reported":0,"unresolved":64,"not_assessed":0,"not_applicable":0,"withheld":0,"source_unavailable":0}}},"presentation_version":"23c01af4a996287e723ee76551a4ea5b0826533d87d12748fa97d35c0d3bf6ec"}