By that time, Mr. Giuliani said the school system could be in a better position to seek competitive bidders to keep costs down.

This means that potential competitive bidders will have more time to organise rival bids.

The closing time is slightly different for competitive and non-competitive bidders.

It feared that the auction process might ultimately disclose its offer to competitive bidders and, if it lost, that it might lose face.

But other state officials said there is no formal system to screen competitive bidders for ties to organized crime.

In a single-price auction, all successful competitive bidders and all noncompetitive bidders are awarded securities at the price equivalent to the highest rate or yield of accepted competitive tenders.

"There was a fair and competitive bidding process for those people who were competitive bidders," he said.

"We will be a very competitive bidder on that."

And to provide the same information to shareholders and competitive bidders as they provide to the banks which are coming up with the funding.

Loewen executives have said that the merger would affect not only consumers but also owners of funeral homes wanting the most competitive bidders when they sell.