According to Blacklock’s Reporter, SNC-Lavalin has not been stopped from bidding on lucrative government contracts, even after they admitted to bribing foreign officials abroad and bid-rigging.
The engineering giant has received $6.8 million in federal contracts since pleading guilty to fraud. One contract was awarded on December 18, the same day that the firm pleaded guilty.
Under the terms of their out-of-court settlement, SNC-Lavalin has agreed to pay a fine of $280 million. The firm is still eligible to bid on federal contracts according to the settlement.
According to Blacklock’s, the Public Prosecution Service has refused to disclose the terms of the settlement.
Between 2001 and 2011, SNC-Lavalin spent $48 million to bribe officials in Libya in exchange for government contracts.
SNC-Lavalin also paid for the son of former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi to use prostitutes during a visit to Canada.
On Sunday SNC-Lavalin was ordered to pay $1.9 million for rigging bids on public works projects in Quebec, the fourth time the firm has made such a settlement.
“The company adopted an unusual, unlawful and dishonest practice by artificially inflating the prices of contracts, paying bribes and misappropriating money for personal gain,” Crown prosecutor Anne-Marie Manoukian said at the fraud trial.
Firms found guilty of wrongdoing would usually be blacklisted from federal contracts, but SNC-Lavalin is the only firm in Canada to have been granted an exemption by the federal government.
“SNC-Lavalin is able to continue to contract with the federal government,” Public Works Spokesman Marc-André Charbonneau said in an earlier statement.
“The Integrity Regime continues to provide a mechanism to encourage suppliers to cooperate with legal authorities.”
In 2019 high-ranking government officials, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, were accused of pressuring then-Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould to give a beneficial plea deal to SNC-Lavalin.
As a result of the SNC-Lavalin scandal, Canada’s global corruption ranking fell from 9th least-corrupt to 12th.
