SNC-Lavalin offers amnesty to whistleblowers

Engineering giant won't seek damages against employees to report potential corruption

CBC News, May 27, 2013

SNC-Lavalin says it will not prosecute employees who come forward with
evidence of fraud in the company. (Christine Muschi/Reuters)

SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. is offering whistleblowers within its workforce a limited offer of amnesty from being fired if they come forward now about any misdeeds within the company.

The Montreal-based engineering giant says it won't seek damages or unilaterally fire employees who voluntarily provide a full, truthful report about potential corruption and anti-competitive activities.

To qualify, an employee has between June 3 and August 31 to file a formal request with SNC's chief compliance officer.

• A brief history of SNC-Lavalin

“While the vast majority of SNC-Lavalin’s employees will have nothing to report, this offer of amnesty will allow us to uncover and quickly deal with any remaining issues," said Andreas Pohlmann, the company's chief compliance officer. "Our goal is to turn the page on a challenging chapter in the company’s history, so we can focus all of our attention on creating value for our stakeholders."

The amnesty won't cover executives in SNC's office of the president, its management committee groups or anyone who directly profited from a violation.

SNC is undergoing both internal and police investigations for alleged fraud and corrupt practices in Canada and abroad by some former employees.

The company says that to its knowledge, it's the first time any Canadian company has implemented such an amnesty program.