Graubünden: Hobby Hunters in the Construction Cartel Swamp

In the Lower Engadine, construction companies manipulated procurement in building and civil engineering for years.

The Competition Commission has fined seven firms approximately 7.5 million francs. The companies colluded on prices and determined who should be awarded the contracts.

It is not the first time that construction companies in the canton of Graubünden have been fined by the Competition Commission (Weko). As early as July 2017, it uncovered illegal collusion in the Münstertal. At that time, the Weko revealed that building and civil engineering companies had colluded on prices in more than 100 tenders between 2004 and 2012, determining who would be awarded the contracts.

The Weko has now concluded another antitrust investigation in the canton of Graubünden, as it announced on Thursday. It found that construction companies had colluded on several hundred tenders in building and civil engineering across various cartels.

The whole affair bears a striking resemblance to the hunting misconduct in the same Department of Construction, Transport and Forestry. Dictatorial, illegal, arbitrary, and undemocratic machinations — Graubünden specialities, one might say. There are unmistakable parallels to hunting planning and its implementation. Year after year, for example, more than 1,000 local hobby hunters in Graubünden are reported and/or fined. Tradition and culture — or rather corruption, cartels, violence, lies, and mafia-like structures — are very much alive and well in Graubünden.

Quadroni was long part of a cartel in the Graubünden construction industry. In 2009, he alerted the authorities to the price-fixing arrangements. The cartel encompasses virtually all construction companies in the canton, has been operating for many years, and has collectively cost its clients hundreds of millions of francs. The damage falls on the canton and municipalities, the Rhaetian Railway, and everyone who builds a house or holiday apartment.

But the authorities want nothing to do with the fact that they have been cheated for years. They brush him off. He is dismayed. From that point on, it is clear to him that they are "covering the dirty game."

Three years later, his documents reach the Competition Commission in Bern. It acts immediately: at the end of October 2012, it orders searches of apartments and offices in the Lower Engadine; shortly afterwards, COMCO expands its investigations to cover the entire canton — and uncovers what is to date the largest case of price-fixing in the Swiss construction industry. Last year, the first rulings came down. The case concerning the Münstertal in particular illustrates strikingly how the cartel operated. In the coming months, up until summer 2018, COMCO will also conclude the major investigations. Already it is clear: all the major firms in Graubünden were involved.

Organised by the Master Builders' Association

The construction companies coordinated among themselves as to which of them should receive the contract. In most cases, the tender prices were determined at the same time. The Graubünden construction companies carried out part of the cartel arrangements systematically and over several years, as the online magazine «Republik» revealed (The Cartel, The Whistleblower,  The Politics, Is Quadroni Lying? Reactions).

The report by the online magazine «Republik» does not only cast a dubious light on the two BDP cantonal government candidates and hobby hunters Jon Domenic Parolini and Andreas Felix. Felix is alleged to have been involved in the arrangements; Parolini — as former mayor of Scuol — is said to have known at least about the illegal price-fixing, as did the responsible Department of Construction, Transport and Forestry in Chur.

At one point, the cantonal civil engineering office in Chur stated that the documents in question had «not been handed over». Then again it was said: the allegations were «too weakly documented». Both can be read in earlier publications of the «Südostschweiz».

Graubünden is one of the last three strongholds of the BDP. The fact that a candidate for the cantonal government and a sitting councillor could be involved in a blatant cartel case is likely to worry party leader and hobby hunter Martin Landolt as well.

Update: 27.4.2018

53-year-old hobby hunter Andreas Felix is going under in the Graubünden construction mafia scandal. He is stepping down as cantonal party president of the BDP in Graubünden and as a candidate for the cantonal government.

In his role as managing director of the Graubünden Master Builders' Association, he faced accusations of having known about illegal price-fixing agreements.

The agreements were partly made at preliminary meetings organised by the Graubünden Master Builders' Association.

On 25.4.2018, Andreas Felix said on Regionaljournal Graubünden: «The portrayal currently being circulated about me is not accurate — it is a pack of lies. The vivid descriptions of activities and statements I am alleged to have made at such supposed meetings have absolutely no basis in fact.»

He maintains his position: Neither he nor the Master Builders' Association had any knowledge of the price-fixing agreements.

Graubünden is the «Athens of today's scoundrels», Schiller once wrote. Those who have always felt there was something to that may now feel vindicated.