The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition Minister of Public Works Diane Finley has halved the 10-year "debarment" for companies found guilty of corruption anywhere in the world. A Globe editorial says five years is still an exceptionally long time to be banned from doing business with the federal government. The policy
remains rigid and without discretion. The Globe prefers a system where companies simply show
they have reformed their ways. Take the case of Brookfield Asset. Two years ago, a
Brazilian prosecutor charged Brookfield's Brazilian subsidiary with paying bribes for building permits. A senior executive was dismissed;
the case is still proceeding in Brazil's courts. Any conviction of a foreign subsidiary
threatens its Canadian parent with automatic exclusion from doing business with the government of Canada. Then there is SNC-Lavalin Group. Some company executives did engage in bribery,
at least in Libya. Yet, under its current chief executive officer, Robert Card, SNC is trying
to rehabilitate itself. It claims, credibly, that it is uncovering past wrongdoing and putting in place policies to prevent a repeat.
The feds' integrity framework should leave much more room for discretion.
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