Quebec’s anti-corruption police squad (UPAC) arrested seven people Wednesday morning involved in what they call a scheme to favour information technology companies in obtaining a $24 million contract.
UPAC police officers raided the homes of employees at computer firms, Informatique EBR and IBM, in the Quebec City area and in the north shore of Montreal.
The police operation, entitled Mitraille, also targeted bureaucrats working for the Quebec government. Two worked for Revenue Quebec and another was the director of information technology for the Public Security Ministry.
One of the heads of Informatique EBR and one of the employees at Revenue Quebec are brothers, noted Captain André Boulanger, head of UPAC investigations.
Revenu Quebec said their two employees were relieved from their duties in June and July 2014. Revenu Quebec also said that no contract was ever given to Informatique EBR relating to the investigation.
The anti-corruption commissioner, Robert Lafreniere, explained that the computer companies were receiving “privileged information” to gain the multi-million contract, but Lafreniere could not reveal any more details since the evidence has to be presented first to defence lawyers.
Lafreniere said that UPAC will continue investigating information technology contracts.
Police are looking for one more suspect.
Two of the suspects, businessman Mohamed El Khayat and bureaucrat Abdelaziz Younsi, were jointly accused in a previous UPAC raid in June 2014.
