A TELUQ education professor himself prepared a public call for tenders worth $700,000 for research work in schools, won by one of his close collaborators. In order for the latter to qualify, the University asked him to stop presenting himself as one of its employees in order to circumvent its internal policy.
In 2017, TELUQ used public funds from Quebec school service centers to launch a call for tenders for $700,000 over five years for the delivery of “professional services” in schools related to research from the Professor Steve Bissonnette. This promotes “positive behavior support” (SCP), a method of “effective teaching” which aims to reduce behavioral gaps among students. It was Mr. Bissonnette himself who was responsible for drafting the technical portion of the public call for tenders.
The winning bidder, GECA, is the company of Normand St-Georges, a close collaborator of Mr. Bissonnette who presents himself as a “TELUQ research professional” and who publishes scientific articles using this title.
The problem is that the University’s internal policy does not allow it to award contracts to the company of one of its employees. The solution? TELUQ asked Mr. St-Georges to “no longer identify himself as an employee” of the University, even though it had tolerated this situation for several years, according to Mr. Bissonnette’s explanations.
“Before 2017, this title was possible for him. He could do it because at that time there was no process for going to a call for tenders. […] But since 2017, he cannot,” explained Professor Bissonnette to Duty. He clarified that his colleague used the title even if it had not been “authorized” by TELUQ, but reported a certain tolerance on the part of the University… which lasted until GECA receives contracts from the establishment.
Called to react to these revelations, TELUQ said it was unable “to go into detail on exchanges which date back more than seven years and of which we have no written trace”.
“As soon as current senior management was informed of the way in which Mr. St-Georges wrongly identified himself, steps were formally taken by our legal department to request that this be corrected,” assured the director of communications, Élisabeth. Farinacci. Remember that Mr. St-Georges has never been an employee of TELUQ University, neither in the 2010s nor today. Never. »
Mme Farinacci added that Professor Bissonnette had modified his personal website on Tuesday to remove the mention that Mr. St-Georges was a “research professional in the education department of TELUQ”. Duty attempted to communicate several times with Mr. St-Georges by telephone, email and social media over the past week; he did not respond to our requests for an interview.
Before 2017, this title was possible for him. He could do it because at that time there was no process for going to a call for tenders. […] But since 2017, he can’t.
Ethical and legal questions
TELUQ confirmed to Duty having mandated Steve Bissonnette to write the “technical” part of the $700,000 call for tenders which was won by GECA. A professor in the education department, Mr. Bissonnette made headlines in June 2024 when Duty revealed that he, with his private company, sells a method that he studies and evaluates in publicly funded research.
The agreement resulting from this call for tenders is part of a series of contracts concluded between TELUQ and the company GECA (for “Effective management of behavior and learning”), to which the University delegates part of his research activities (see our other text). According to Mr. Bissonnette, GECA has only one employee: Normand St-Georges.
Mr. Bissonnette notably prepared for the call for tenders the list of “minimum compliance requirements”, criteria required of bidders wishing to obtain the contract. At the end of the process, two bidders came forward. They both had ties to Mr. Bissonnette.
This type of situation raises ethical and legal questions, argue experts at Duty. “First, will the person draft the clauses of the call for tenders to favor the public body or, on the contrary, the contractor? » indicated lawyer Alexandre Thériault-Marois, co-author of the book Integrity of public procurement in Quebec. “Then, it raises the question as to the watertightness of the process, [afin] that there is no inside information given to potential bidders. »
Nicholas Jobidon, assistant professor at the National School of Public Administration, recalls that the rules of calls for tenders are constructed in such a way as to force “public bodies to solicit competition”, “by preventing them from choosing their own contractors “. “If a contract was given to a person not to spend public funds wisely, but rather to enrich that person — or for other purposes that have nothing to do with the mission of the organization —, This is what we call an abuse of public funds, he emphasizes. So, if a contract is given in a conflict of interest, for example following a directed call for tenders — drawn up to target a particular contractor — that contract is illegal. »
Links with bidders
Winning bidder, Mr. St-Georges’ company GECA, received $633,666 from TELUQ to carry out research in schools. Its owner says he works in “close collaboration” with Mr. Bissonnette, with whom he conducts research, gives conferences abroad and publishes articles in education journals.
The second bidder, Boscoville, is a social services organization for young people located in Montreal. Mr. Bissonnette was an associated researcher at Boscoville for years, and notably in 2017, when the call for tenders was launched. Requested by Dutythe current general director of Boscoville, Annie Fournier, said she found no information allowing her to believe that her organization had received privileged information related to this call for tenders. Boscoville, she clarified, no longer works with Mr. Bissonnette.
In an interview, the latter assured that he had acted within the rules of the art, without transmitting any privileged information to the bidders. “Everything that has been done is legal. I think I did my best, and if I had to do it again, I would do the same thing, and in exactly the same way,” he attested. He assured that his actions complied with the collective agreement and the requirements of the TELUQ legal department.
The laws in force in Quebec require public bodies, such as TELUQ, to act to prevent situations of conflict of interest and “any situation likely to compromise the impartiality and objectivity of the call for tenders process “. The University’s call for tenders mentioned that the service provider, in this case GECA, “must avoid any situation which would put its own interest or other interests in conflict”.
A precise list of requirements
In the call for tenders, Mr. Bissonnette drew up a precise list of “minimum compliance requirements” imposed on potential bidders.
Companies interested in the TELUQ call for tenders had, for example, to have been in business for at least three years, to have carried out at least three mandates related to the SCP over the last three years and to hold at least five years of experience. SCP training experience. Added to this were requirements on the knowledge of English and on the educational background of the bidders, of whom “at least one employee” had to hold a master’s degree in education, psychology or another “relevant field”.
These latter criteria cannot be qualified as “good practice” because the requirements add up to each other, underlines Gabriel Jobidon, assistant professor at the École de Technologie Supérieure specializing in calls for tenders in the construction sector. (The latter is unrelated to Nicholas Jobidon.) “These are cumulative requirements that could be seen as unduly restricting competition. [Les] clauses provided for in the tender documents […] must allow the opening to competition and ensure the honest and fair treatment of bidders, real or potential,” he recalls.
Me Thériault-Marois agrees. “As soon as we are not compliant on one of the elements, this allows the public body to reject the submission. [Donc]it encourages competition even less,” he emphasizes.
Few possible bidders
At DutyMr. Bissonnette said he “simply placed on paper the requirements that [lui] seem fundamental. A pioneer of SCP in Canada, the professor was unable to name a company or organization that could have bid on this call for tenders, other than his own (the Proxima Group), GECA and Boscoville.
“Are there other players?” Honestly, I don’t know,” he said. He specified that he had “trained enough people over the past 15 years so that, if these people wanted to eventually offer their services in environments, that would be [puisse] be entirely thinkable to do so.”
Annie Fournier, from Boscoville, also declared that to her knowledge, no one is implementing the SCP in Quebec apart from Proxima, GECA and Boscoville. In context, is there any other company than these three that could have met the requirements of the call for tenders? To this question, TELUQ responded that it was “a public call for tenders published on [le système électronique du gouvernement]therefore open to anyone (natural person or company) who meets the minimum compliance requirements.”
TELUQ added that after the preparation of the call for tenders by Mr. Bissonnette, the steps ranging from “validation to the choice of the bidder, including publication”, were under the exclusive responsibility of the Resources Department. financial services and the Administrative and Community Services Department.