A story in The Gazette reports that the City of Montreal has imposed a five year ban on a firm that admitted to having engaged in collusion to rig the award of city contracts and inflate the related costs:
Dessau has been officially disqualified from bidding on public contracts with the city of Montreal for five years, Montreal Mayor Michael Applebaum announced Friday afternoon, adding more firms would get the bad news in the days to come.
The city’s legal department notified Dessau on Friday as it applied its recently modified policy on contract management that now bars anyone (or any company) which has admitted to taking part in collusion.
Only a few weeks ago, Dessau senior vice-president Rosaire Sauriol testified before the Charbonneau Commission that his firm was part of a cartel of engineering firms that colluded to rig the bidding process and divide up municipal contracts — hiking prices as they did.
The story notes that there will be more bidder barring announcements coming from the City of Montreal in the wake of ongoing Charbonneau Commission revelations.
