Fraud payback terms to remain confidential

The amount of money the City of Sherbrooke has recovered for fraud or fraudulent activity in the awarding or management of public contracts will remain confidential, City Council has decided.

A section of the law act allows for the establishment of a voluntary repayment program for companies that admit to having participated in this type of activity. On Monday’s regular municipal council meeting, elected officials delegated to the Director General, Yves Vermette, the power to accept or refuse a proposal for regulation under this program. He will be the only one, along with attorneys of record, to know the amount covered by any agreement.

Businesses concerned had until November 1, 2016 to take advantage of the program. As stipulated in the decision summary published on Monday, "the City of Sherbrooke was among the public bodies targeted by the proposal that Sintra intended to file in order to obtain a global discharge".

Since DJL was a bidder in almost all of the City of Sherbrooke's tenders and it was impossible to collude alone, the City had asked for permission to negotiate an agreement with DJL as well., which the Department of Justice has granted.

"Everything that is said or written in the context of the application of the program is confidential," the law says.

“We understand the purpose of confidentiality. It was assumed that collaboration would be better on the part of companies who would sit down to pay back sums if confidentiality was respected. But for elected officials, this is frustrating since we will never know by how much we have been cheated," commented Executive Committee Chair Serge Paquin.