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Construction at the Glen site hospital campus in west Montreal continues, but no one wants to take credit for the $1.3-billion project anymore. And no one is willing to reveal who encouraged MUHC to give the lucrative deal to SNC-Lavalin, or why.

Quebec’s special squadrons of anti-corruption police have been busy lately, but the raid three weeks ago on MUHC’s downtown Montreal headquarters came as a surprise. Police were looking for “information related to the awarding of the contract for the Glen site public-private partnership,” MUHC revealed. Another bombshell dropped this week when La Presse newspaper in Montreal raised suggestions that $22.5-million of $56-million in secret payments — allegedly used to help secure work for SNC-Lavalin — involved the MUHC hospital contract.

La Presse offered no proof that MUHC’s deal with SNC Lavalin had been compromised. An independent auditor assigned in 2007 to monitor the contract bid process says he found no evidence of any impropriety. No formal accusations have been made, and no charges have been laid in connection to the contract process.

Ultimately, the decision to award SNC-Lavalin the contract fell to Yves Bolduc, who was Quebec’s health minister in 2010. But this was a formality; in fact, Mr. Bolduc accepted a formal recommendation from MUHC’s board of directors, chaired by Mr. Angus. “Our board couldn’t be more delighted to have ratified this decision,” Mr. Angus said in April 2010, after announcing that SNC-Lavalin had toppled the only other consortium in the running.