Canadian Contractors Propose Alternate Conflict Resolution Then Just Court

Last week the Canadian government charged seven companies and fourteen individuals with bid rigging. They all face criminal investigation and charges. Now the Ottowa Business Journal writes that some government contractors are proposing the use of arbitrators and conflict resolution in such cases rather then just use of criminal statutes. The Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance, a group made up of tech companies, is proposing that these type of arbitration be written into contracts between the government and the company. Mr. Paul LaBarge, who runs the Alliance, does make the comment that government seems to want to use their “existing structures” for this type of situation. Really unless there is a situation where there are issues from both the government and contractor side then arbitration will not be much use. The government is quite happy, and should be, to use the law when there is evidence as in this case it was broken. The hook to the arbitration is that one of the charged companies, TPG Technology Consulting, filed a grievance with the government over a contract award to another company. Some feel that this is the motivation for the government’s charges against the accused bid riggers. That is the main issue with this type of conflict resolution, there has to be a motivation from both sides to gain from it. Without this it is hard to bring the parties together.