BC Hydro Handed Out $171 Million In No-Bid Contracts While Hiding Dam Site C Problems
BC Hydro handed out more than $171 million in no-bid Site C dam contracts over an eight-month period ending in July 2020, including to the beleaguered engineering firm SNC Lavalin, The Narwhal has learned. SNC Lavalin, which in 2013 was banned from World Bank contracts for 10 years due to fraud and corruption overseas, received almost $27 million in three new direct-award Site C dam contracts, according to information The Narwhal received from BC Hydro through a freedom of information (FOI) request.
That’s in addition to $131 million in Site C dam no-bid contracts BC Hydro had already granted SNC Lavalin, which is responsible for designing core components of the over-budget dam on B.C.’s Peace River, the largest publicly funded project in the province’s history.
The FOI response also shows that TE Little Consulting, a firm headed by Tim Little, BC Hydro’s former chief engineer, received $309,000 in December 2019 for Little’s services as the Site C dam “independent engineer.” According to an earlier FOI response, Little, who reports to the B.C. government on all aspects of the dam’s construction, also received a no-bid Site C contract as an “independent engineer” worth $360,000 in December 2018.
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Information about BC Hydro’s latest Site C no-bid contracts comes as the B.C. cabinet sits on a report from former B.C. deputy finance minister Peter Milburn, who was appointed by the government last July to report on the myriad problems facing the Site C dam. There has been no public update on the troubled project since last July, and BC Hydro has failed to file two outstanding Site C dam quarterly reports with the watchdog B.C. Utilities Commission to outline the project’s risks, progress and expenditures. The last quarterly report BC Hydro filed with the commission is current to March 31, 2020.
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https://thenarwhal.ca/bc-hydro-site-c-contracts-snc-lavalin-foi/