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The alleged “culture of corruption” by SNC-Lavalin and others was encouraged by the government’s willingness to turn a blind eye

The bribery allegations facing engineering giant SNC-Lavalin are just a “few aberrations” associated with a “few individuals” who are no longer with the company, according to Leslie Quinton, SNC’s senior vice-president for Global Corporate Communications.

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CEO Robert Card — who took over from Pierre Duhaime after he was forced to resign over $56-million in alleged improper payments — declared the problems at the firm were “compartmentalized,” “limited” and “fixable” and that key stakeholders now “trust and respect” the company and believe it is “on the right track.”

And Gwyn Morgan, the former chairman of SNC-Lavalin and founder of gas giant Encana, said that when a “small number” of individuals in a large company (SNC employs more than 34,000 people in countries across the globe) sets out to falsify documents, pay bribes and cover up theft, it is “exceedingly difficult to detect.” Corporations around the world face this problem, not just SNC-Lavalin, he added.