GATINEAU, QUE. — André Côté, a former executive for engineering firm Roche ltée, Groupe-conseil (now Norda Stelo), was recently charged with participating in a bid-rigging scheme for Québec City contracts between 2006 and 2010 and received a 14-month conditional sentence.
Côté pleaded guilty on June 21 before the Court of Quebec, admitting to conspiring to divide up Québec City municipal infrastructure contracts among seven other engineering-consulting firms while he was vice-president of infrastructure for Roche in Québec. The sentence, which was handed down Oct. 25, consists of seven months of house arrest and a seven-month curfew. He will also have to complete 100 hours of community service.
His former employer also had to pay $750,000 under a settlement reached by the Public Prosecution Service of Canada for rigging bids for municipal infrastructure contracts in Québec.
Following an investigation by the Competition Bureau, criminal charges were brought in November 2023 against two former executives of engineering-consulting firms, Côté and Patrice Mathieu, for conspiracy to rig bids, conspiracy to commit fraud, and fraud over $5,000. Legal proceedings are still ongoing for the second individual
Six other engineering-consulting firms, namely, Dessau, Genivar (now WSP Canada), SNC-Lavalin, CIMA+, BPR and Teknika HBA inc. (now EXP Services Inc.), have also reached settlement agreements with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada for bid-rigging municipal infrastructure contracts in Quebec, including in Québec City. The total amount of these settlements amounts to over $12 million.
The Bureau strongly encourages anyone who suspects a company or individual of being involved in illegal agreements, such as bid-rigging, price-fixing, market allocation, restricting supply, or wage-fixing and no-poaching agreements, to report it through its online complaint form.
“Rigging bids on public contracts is a serious offence that artificially increases costs and ultimately enriches a handful of individuals and companies while impoverishing taxpayers,” said Matthew Boswell, Commissioner of Competition, in a statement. “That is why we will continue to fight against this scourge and pursue those who conspire to increase their profits through criminal schemes such as bid-rigging.”
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