Quebec construction company hit with fine for bid-rigging conspiracy
by Canadian Manufacturing.com Staff
Construction Benvas Inc. pleads guilty, agrees to pay $100,000 fine
OTTAWA—Canada’s Competition Bureau has slapped Quebec’s Construction Benvas Inc. with a $100,000 fine for its part in a bid-rigging conspiracy in the Montreal suburbs.
According to the Competition Bureau, the company accepted a $25,000 payment from competitor CIV-BEC Inc. through a false purchase order to not submit a bid for a road repair project in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que. The deal allowed CIV-BEC to land the public contract.
The company pleaded guilty to the bid-rigging allegations and has agreed to pay $100,000. Meanwhile, charges against Jean-Jacques Laplante, an assessor at the company, have been dropped.
Since 2012, joint investigations by the Sûreté du Québec’s Service des enquêtes sur la corruption and the Competition Bureau have led to criminal changes against 13 individuals and 11 companies in Quebec’s construction industry.
