Scandal-plagued SNC-Lavalin said Monday that 32 employees came forward with requests under its corporate amnesty program between June 3 and August 31.
The Montreal-based engineering and construction firm didn’t say how many of the employees who requested amnesty under the program received it.
It said ‘no new information of a material nature was revealed’ through the amnesty program but the information received ‘did confirm its previous assessment of corruption risks.’
In April, the World Bank barred SNC-Lavalin from bank-funded projects for ten years because of alleged corruption in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Libya, and Algeria.
Last month, a Swiss court ordered the extradition to Canada of former company executive Riadh Ben Aissa to face charges for fraud, bribery, and money laundering.
Canadian police said he arranged more than $160 million in bribes to the son of former Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi in exchange for engineering contracts.
The former CEO of SNC-Lavalin, Pierre Duhaime, was arrested last year for fraud and forgery. He left the company after an internal audit found more than $50 million in payments to middlemen that couldn’t be traced to the performance of any services.
Two other executives from SNC-Lavalin were charged in Toronto last year with bribing officials in Bangladesh.
The company said Monday it has now published an anti-corruption manual for its 34,000 employees around the world, and an enhanced code of ethics and business conduct.
Compliance officers have been assigned to business units and regional hubs, it said. They report ‘directly to SNC-Lavalin’s chief compliance officer, Andreas Pohlmann.’
All employees are receiving compliance training. And ‘an independent Monitor [is] reporting to the World Bank [and] will provide further input to refine and improve its ethics and compliance program going forward,’ the company said.
SNC-Lavalin has offices in 40 countries and does business in about 100 countries.
The company trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange (SNC) and in the U.S. over-the-counter market (SNCAF).
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Richard L. Cassin is the Publisher and Editor of the FCPA Blog. He can be contacted here.
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