The Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) has launched the Informant Reward Scheme, a program meant to provide financial incentives to persons with credible and timely information that will help the Authority’s investigations.
CAK is a government agency tasked with promoting and safeguarding competition in the Kenyan economy and protecting consumers from unfair and misleading market conduct. Competition laws in Kenya prohibit businesses from engaging in activities that limit competition. Companies that practise cartel-like conduct or engage in restrictive trade activities face harsh penalties for infringing the law.
The Competition Authority has established the reward program to increase efficiency and effectiveness in its enforcement work. The Informant Reward Scheme outlines the financial reward and mechanisms to be applied in rewarding persons who provide actionable information to the authority.
Under the program, informants who provide credible intelligence on unfair trade practices are entitled to up to 1% of the administrative penalty imposed by CAK. The intelligence given must lead to penalization of involved parties for the informant to qualify for the reward. CAK says that the reward shall not exceed KSh1 million.
“Cartels which harm consumers through impeding choice, innovation and increasing prices, flourish under a veil of secrecy,” said CAK’s Director General Mr. Wang’ombe Kariuki. “Through this scheme, the authority has the objective of deepening its intelligence gathering capacity with regard to such clandestine operations using informants who are close to the conduct but not party to it,” he added.
“A confidential informant can be an employee who was directed by their superiors to attend a meeting between competing firms where price fixing was discussed, but did not actively participate in the decision making,” CAK said in a statement.
The government agency added that it will take all precautions to protect the identity of the informant.
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