SNC-Lavalin offering employees amnesty in exchange for cooperation

SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. is encouraging its employees to report corruption and anti-competition matters during a 90-day amnesty program.

The program is designed to help the Montreal-based construction company gather and assess information associated with corporate ethics as it looks to restore its reputation following high profile cases of bribery and corruption.

To be eligible for amnesty employees must file a request with Andreas Pohlmann, SNC-Lavalin’s chief compliance officer, between June 3 and Aug. 31.

In a media release, the company stated it will not make claims for damages or unilaterally terminate employees who voluntarily, truthfully and fully report violations of its code of ethics and business conduct during this period.

However, the offer is not being extended to executives in the company’s office of the president, management committee groups or anyone who directly profited from an ethical violation.

The company said to its knowledge, this is the first time that a Canadian company has initiated an amnesty program. 

“Amnesty programs are known to be highly effective means of getting to the bottom of ethics and compliance issues in large organizations,” said Andreas Pohlmann, chief compliance officer, SNC-Lavalin Group Inc, in a media release.

“While the vast majority of SNC-Lavalin’s employees will have nothing to report, this offer of amnesty will allow us to uncover and quickly deal with any remaining issues. Our goal is to turn the page on a challenging chapter in the Company’s history, so we can focus all of our attention on creating value for our stakeholders.”