22 October 2018
In four of the country’s most influential newspapers, company president and chief executive Neil Bruce (pictured) published an open letter apologising for paying bribes to Libyan officials amounting to CAN$48m in the decade to 2011. In that letter, Bruce said SNC-Lavalin had reformed, and appealed for the government’s new Remediation Agreement scheme to be applied so that a four year long trial could be avoided. Last week the Canadian government refused to allow the company to negotiate a remediation deal.
Canada’s Remediation Agreement process came into effect only in September this year. This allows companies to avoid prosecution in return for admitting wrongdoing, paying fines, and implementing reform measures.
He said that in the years since 2012, the management team had changed and it had worked tirelessly to achieve excellence in governance and integrity. He asked Canadians to think of SNC-Lavalin’s 9,000 Canadian employees (of 52,000 globally), and of the many small companies in its supply chain contributing to the backbone of the country’s economy.
In 2008, SNC-Lavalin was accused of bribery and financial fraud related to the contracting Kerala hydroelectric dam in India, which resulted in the expulsion of several Indian government officials, alleged a net loss to the exchequer of $3745.0 million.
In September 2013, SNC-Lavalin and its affiliates, among others, were blacklisted from bidding on the World Bank’s global projects.
The company has an annual turnover of $9.5 billion.
