Effective strategies for mitigating bidding corruption for U.S. Infrastructure contracts

Fraud in the U.S. government and corporate construction bidding process remains a critical issue, driving up project costs, distorting competition, and undermining financial forecasting. Business owners face financial losses and competitive disadvantages due to fraudulent bidding, while regulators struggle to enforce fair practices, and taxpayers bear the burden of inflated costs. Grounded in the fraud triangle theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore successful strategies to mitigate fraud in the government and corporate construction bidding process. The participants were 10 construction managers from the Department of Transportation, Department of Justice, and private sector, all experienced in fraud mitigation. Data were collected through face-to-face semistructured interviews, historical data, and publicly available documents. Through thematic analysis, six primary themes emerged: psychological and cultural factors contributing to unethical behavior, oversight gaps in existing controls, the role of technology in enhancing transparency and reducing fraud, the impact of ethics training on accountability, the necessity of rotating evaluators and external audits to mitigate bias, and the importance of rationalizing prevention through a strong ethical culture. A key recommendation is for Department of Transportation leaders to enhance internal controls using state-of-the-art auditing technology to improve transparency in the bidding process, which is pivotal to creating an ethical organizational culture. The potential implications for positive social change include improving the quality and efficiency of public infrastructure projects and minimizing abuse of taxpayer funds.