The Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec fines engineer 

Bulletin staff

On October 10, the Disciplinary Council of the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec ordered Robert Proulx, former manager in SNC-Lavalin’s municipal engineering department, to pay a $5,000 fine.

The Ordre des ingénieurs concluded that Mr. Proulx contravened the Code of Ethics of Engineers by participating, on more than one occasion, in a scheme designed to circumvent Longueuil’s competitive bidding process. This scheme was brought up a number of times during the Charbonneau Commission  hearings.

Similar to a contract-sharing scheme that was in place in Gatineau in the early and mid 2000s, a number of engineering firms active in Longueuil collaborated to maximize their profits from municipal contracts. Mr. Proulx, an engineer who joined l’Ordre in 1986, participated in the scheme between 2002 and 2009. Mr. Proulx was primarily responsible for responding to municipal calls for tenders.

In response to the contract-sharing scheme in Gatineau, l’Ordre suspended and fined several engineers. In Gatineau, to avoid bidding against each other, the involved firms had agreed to an arrangement that gave CIMA+ 40% of the market, Génivar 27%, Tecsult 22%, and Dessau 11%. Annually, this represented about $2.4 million in municipal contracts. For the system to function, representatives from firms met and determined who would get which contract. Each company then placed their bid, but the designated losers placed bids according to an agreed limit.