SNC-Lavalin to pay $1.9M for rigging bids on Quebec municipal contracts

SNC-Lavalin Inc. will pay Ottawa $1.9 million for rigging bids on municipal infrastructure contracts in Quebec as part of a federal settlement.

The Competition Bureau says the Public Prosecution Service of Canada settlement, filed Friday in Quebec Superior Court, ends the agency's investigation of the company's role in a scheme in which several engineering firms conspired to rig bids for municipal contracts between 2003 and 2012 in Montreal and the Quebec City area.

The settlement takes into account SNC-Lavalin's reimbursements through Quebec's voluntary reimbursement program and the fact that the individuals involved in the scheme no longer work for the firm.

This is the fourth settlement with an engineering firm resulting from the bureau's investigation.

Dessau, WSP Canada (formerly Genivar) and Norda Stelo (formerly Roche) were previously ordered to pay $1.9 million, $4 million and $750,000 respectively for their roles in the bid-rigging scheme.

The investigation also resulted in guilty pleas by four former executives of engineering firms CIMA+, Genivar and Dessau for bid-rigging on City of Gatineau infrastructure contracts. They received conditional prison sentences totalling five years and 11 months, as well ascourt-ordered community service totalling 260 hours.

Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin also settled criminal charges last December related to business dealings in Libya, with its construction division pleading guilty to a single count of fraud that helped tie off a long-standing scandal that tarnished its reputation and ensnared the highest office of the Canadian government.