The firms involved in this bid-rigging scheme will have paid over $12.7 million as a result of settlement agreements
Engineering firm Teknika HBA Inc. (now Les Services EXP Inc.) has been ordered to pay $200,000 for bid-rigging on municipal infrastructure contracts in Québec.
The payment is part of a settlement reached by the Public Prosecution Service of Canada and Teknika, and filed yesterday at the Superior Court of Québec. The settlement ends the Competition Bureau's investigation of the company's role in a bid-rigging scheme that targeted municipal infrastructure contracts in Québec City and Montréal between 2004 and 2011.
The settlement accounts for the fact that Teknika had previously reimbursed overpayments related to the bid-rigging through the Government of Québec's Voluntary Reimbursement Program.
As part of the settlement, the Court has also ordered the company to follow its corporate compliance program and to maintain appropriate control procedures to ensure its effectiveness.
Teknika is the last of the eight firms involved in this bid-rigging scheme to agree to a corporate settlement, however the Bureau's investigation remains ongoing. The eight settlements bring the total payments made by engineering firms to $12,735,000. The seven other firms are:
- BPR
- CIMA+
- Dessau
- Genivar (now WSP Canada)
- Roche ltée, Groupe-conseil (now Norda Stelo Inc.)
- SNC-Lavalin
- Génius Conseil Inc.
The $200,000 payment by Teknika HBA Inc. will be made to the Receiver General for Canada in the next 30 days.
