Canadian engineering giant SNC-Lavalin, facing mounting bribery allegations, on Monday offered amnesty to employees who come forward with knowledge of wrongdoing.
In a statement, the company guaranteed whistleblowers that it would not make “claims for damages or unilaterally terminate employees who voluntarily, truthfully and fully report violations of its Code of Ethics and Business Conduct.”
The offer, however, does not extend to staff who profited from “ethical violations,” nor does it preclude possible criminal charges.
It comes after the World Bank last month banned SNC-Lavalin from its projects over former executives’ alleged high-level bribery in a Bangladesh bridge project and “misconduct” in a rural electrification project in Cambodia.
Other investigations have linked the company to alleged crimes in Algeria, Canada, Libya, Mexico and Tunisia.
In February, Canadian police issued a warrant for the arrest of a former hospital director and Canadian spy agency watchdog for allegedly accepting payments from SNC-Lavalin in the awarding of a Montreal hospital construction contract.
Two former SNC-Lavalin vice presidents have also been linked to an elaborate plot to bring Saadi Kadhafi, the son of ex-dictator Moamer Kadhafi, into Mexico with false documents at the height of pro-democracy protests in Libya in 2011, and of bribery in connection with projects in Libya.
SNC-Lavalin’s former president was sacked in March 2012 after 23 years with the company amid accusations that he allowed mysterious payments by a former executive now in a Swiss jail facing money-laundering charges.
The former president Pierre Duhaime himself also faces fraud charges in connection with the bid to build the Montreal hospital.
Scandal-plagued SNC-Lavalin offers amnesty to whistleblowers
