MONTREAL - Quebec's anti-corruption squad arrested seven people Wednesday, including two Revenue Quebec bureaucrats, for an alleged $24-million computer contract fraud.

It's the second round of arrests in less than a year involving the EBR information technology firm. Company president Mohamed El Khayat was charged in an alleged laptop scam last year and was still at large in the latest roundup.

Three of the people arrested Wednesday work for IBM.

Police also arrested Revenue Quebec workers Hamid Latmanene and Jamal El Khaiat. Investigators say confidential information was leaked to IBM and EBR to help the firms obtain a lucrative contract with the provincial tax agency.

Police allege the bureaucrats received "personal benefits" but they wouldn't say if cash exchanged hands.

All of the suspects are charged with fraud, conspiracy and breach of trust.

The alleged fraud took place between March 2011 and last June.

QMI Agency has reported for months about financial and management irregularities with the Quebec government's computer networks.

Information systems that were initially budgeted at $1 billion instead cost taxpayers more than $3.8 billion. Two major computer networks, including Quebec's medicare database, had more outside consultants than bureaucrats working on them.

Last September, the anti-corruption unit, known as UPAC, charged one of its own bureaucratic partners with fraud for a suspicious laptop contract.

The IT boss at Quebec's public security department was one of two men charged in the alleged bribery scandal. The public security department oversees UPAC.

Both of Quebec's opposition parties demanded the Liberal government hold a public inquiry into the computer boondoggle.

"The consultants cost Quebec citizens $1 billion last year, and nothing seems likely to change this year," Parti Quebecois critic Sylvain Roy said Wednesday.