Competition Bureau Canada has announced that engineering firm Roche lt茅e, Groupe-conseil (now Norda Stelo Inc) has been ordered to pay CA$750,000 (拢433,000) over four years. The payment is part of a settlement reached by the Public Prosecution Service of Canada and filed today (5th March) with the Superior Court of Qu茅bec.
The settlement ends the Competition Bureau鈥檚 investigation of the company鈥檚 role in a bid-rigging scheme that targeted municipal contracts in Qu茅bec City and L茅vis between 2006 and 2012, when the company was operating as Roche.
The settlement takes into account the fact that Roche previously reimbursed overpayments related to the bid-rigging through the Government of Quebec鈥檚 Voluntary Reimbursement Program. It also takes into account the company鈥檚 limited financial resources and that the individuals involved in the scheme no longer work for the firm.
As part of the settlement, the Court has also ordered the company to maintain its corporate compliance program, which is designed to prevent further anti-competitive activity by its employees.
This is the third settlement with an engineering firm resulting from the Competition Bureau鈥檚 ongoing investigation. Dessau and WSP Canada (formerly Genivar) were previously ordered to pay CA$1.9m and CA$4m respectively for their roles in the bid-rigging scheme.
The investigation has 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, and court-ordered community service totalling 260 hours.
鈥淭he payments in these settlements are over and above what the companies have already reimbursed to the affected municipalities,鈥� said St茅phane Lamoureux, senior deputy commissioner, cartels and deceptive marketing practices. 鈥淚 hope that sends a clear message to those who think they can steal money from taxpayers by rigging bids.鈥�
鈥淏id-rigging raises the cost of products or services,鈥� said Competition Bureau Canada. 鈥淏id-rigging on municipal contracts amounts to a theft of taxpayers鈥� money that could otherwise be spent on important public needs.鈥�
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