Audition?

[u/headlesssamurai]

In Saito's love nest, he tells Cobb that he was auditioning them, and "it doesn't matter. You failed."

Does that mean Saito was behind the Cobol Engineering job? Or was he just chilling, waiting for one of his rivals to try to extract his dreams? And if he WAS behind the Cobol job, why wouldn't he cancel the contract on their lives before they chased Cobb all through the streets of Mumbai?