Quebec tried to influence the awarding of a contract, says the Public Procurement Authority

The Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility (MTMD) tried to influence a selection committee so that it granted a passing grade to an engineering firm excluded from a contract, according to the Public Procurement Authority ( AMP).

In a file made public in recent days, the watchdog of public contracts in Quebec noted breaches significant in the management of a call for tenders published in March 2024 aimed at retaining the services of engineering firms to carry out the inventory and general inspection of structures throughout Quebec.

It’s a two-year, $24 million contract.

Every year, the MTMD oversees the inspection of thousands of road structures within its territory. Whether it is bridges, culverts, retaining walls, tunnels, engineers must note signs of aging, in particular the presence of cracks, falling concrete fragments and rust.

An important task to determine the work to be carried out on a given structure as efficiently as possiblewrites on MTMD in its latest report on the state of the structures.

A selection committee of three members

According to the evidence collected by theAMPthe shortcomings arose when the ministry learned in the spring that 2 of the 15 bidders had not obtained a passing score of 70% from the selection committee.

In a file of around ten pages, theAMP describes in detail the department’s attempts to have the selection committee review the score of one of the two firms excluded because of the score obtained for the criterion related to its experience.

The evidence collected reveals that none of the members [du comité de sélection] did not wish to revise his initial assessment and that the meeting was marked by a certain uneaseunderlines theAMP.

L’AMP is of the opinion that the MTMD tried to influence the members of the Committee [de sélection] so that they can modify the score given to the company so that it obtains a passing score.

L’AMP also notes that the ministry canceled the call for tenders in August only to publish another a few days later by modifying the criterion linked to experience.

Since the interventions of MTMD did not allow him to achieve this end, he chose to cancel the process. In doing so, the MTMD violated the principles of transparency and the honest and fair treatment of competitors in addition to contravening the policy it adopted itself.

In its decision, theAMP orders the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility to transmit to it, for approval, the composition of the selection committees for the award process […] as well as for all processes aimed at the conclusion of professional service contracts including a qualitative evaluation of the offers which will be launched in the next four months.

By email, a spokesperson for MTMD indicates that the ministry analyzes the report of theAMP and will comply with requests made. In no case has the ministry questioned the work carried out by the Committee […,] but the ministry had to be able to explain the note and that is why explanations were requestedspecifies Martin Girard. The ministry holds more than 100 selection committees annually and has concluded approximately $600 million in engineering contracts during the 2023-2024 year.he adds.

Recommendations a year ago

This is not the first time that the largest client in Quebec has been singled out for its management of public contracts.

After more than 200 meetings and the analysis of more than 2,500 contracts, theAMP had published a 135-page report in November 2023 in which it noted in particular deficiencies linked to the inspection of bridges.