| EDITORIAL: Forest roads scandal
Another case of bid-rigging at the initiative of a government agency has come to light. The Fair Trade Commission on Thursday raided the Japan Green Resources Agency, which coordinates forestry work and civil-engineering work of agricultural land improvement under the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. The agency, also known as J-Green, is a mainstay of public works projects second to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport that has been previously charged with bid-rigging. The FTC began its investigation in autumn 2006 and contacted the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office to conduct the joint search. The FTC unraveled a heinous and continuous bid-rigging scheme that has apparently gone on for nearly 10 years. As soon as the FTC began its investigation, J-Green rushed to adopt a general competitive bidding system to replace designated competitive bidding.
Burlco eyes Web auctions
Burlington County plans to join other local governments in auctioning government surplus items on the Web. The Burlington County Freeholders authorized its treasurer's office to sign an agreement with GovDeals Inc., which operates an Internet auction site called www.govdeals.com. The freeholders said they will sell vehicles and office equipment to the public online to make more money, save time and attract more bidders. Sharon Brauckmann, county purchasing agent, said the auction would be held later this year and not until the state Department of Community Affairs gives its approval. She said the state must approve a county application to waive the normal local public auction using an auctioneer. Kurt Brock, the county's chief financial officer, said the state is approving Internet auctions of government property only on eBay and GovDeals.
Many bids for billion-dollar RAMS
KOHLBERG Kravis Roberts and General Electric offered as much as $1 billion to buy Australia's RAMS Mortgage, six people with knowledge of the matter said. Westpac, Macquarie Bank and Carlyle Group also made bids for the closely-held home lender, said the people, who declined to be identified as details aren't public. RAMS makes loans through branches and mortgage brokers. Demand for home loans in Australia is rising after house prices climbed 8.3 per cent last year. New-home sales have increased every month since December, the Housing Industry Association reported in March. Australia's home loan approvals rose for a third straight month in February. "If it is cheap enough, RAMS is an attractive way to expand in home lending," said Peter Vann of Constellation Capital Management.
A FEW OF THE MANY HIGHLIGHTS OF ROBERT EDWARD AUCTIONS’ APRIL 28 ...
In addition to over 1,000 lots of Baseball cards and memorabilia, Robert Edward Auctions is present-ing a tremendous selection of very high quality Comic, Pop Culture, and Americana related items in its April 28 sale. Bidding starts April 10 by FAX, phone, or the Internet via Robert Edward's state-of-the-art real-time interactive bidding site: www.RobertEdwardAuctions.com. The total sales for the event are expected to exceed $5-million. Coming to the block will be some 1,500 lots of collectibles dating from 1838 to 1975. Among the items of special interest will be: Over two-hundred lots of pre-1900 baseball cards and memorabilia, and Thousands of 1910 era tobacco cards.
Of special note is the unveiling of the recently discovered 1838 Philadelphia Olympics Constitution, the earliest relic of organized baseball from the first organized baseball team in existence (re-serve$50,000); The Barry Halper Estate Collection, comprised of over 200 extraordinary lots of base-ball memorabilia from the estate of the baseball world's most famous and legendary collector; The Na-tional Biscuit Collection, representing an extraordinary collection of items from the company's archives, including the original 1900 painting of the Uneeda Biscuit Boy, the corporate symbol of the company and at one time the single most famous advertising icon in the world; the largest collection of original artworks by Charles Addams to ever come to auction (21 original artworks, including many published in the New Yorker); two original Peanuts comic strip artworks by Charles Schulz including an extraor-dinary Baseball Sunday comic strip (reserve $5,000, est.
Bolger bids to allay Teofilio fears
HOLY Roman Emperor was the wham, Teofilio the bam, now ante-post punters will desperately hope for a change of luck by being able to say thank you ma'am at Newmarket today. With Holy Roman Emperor retired to stud, those who have dabbled in the markets for this year's early Classics haven't had their troubles to seek, and although the latest bulletin on Teofilio is slightly more encouraging, it didn't totally erase the worries of his supporters. .
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