TELUQ University delegates part of its research activities in schools to GECA, a private company owned by Normand St-Georges, who presents himself as a research professional of the University.
Between 2014 and 2017, GECA received more than $100,000 from public funds from TELUQ, noted Duty reading four “contracts for professional services”. These contracts are separate from a $700,000 call for tenders that TELUQ awarded to GECA in 2017 (see our other text).
The research at the heart of the contracts between TELUQ and GECA was funded by four school service centers. They paid TELUQ within the framework of research agreements. The University has, in return, committed to carrying out work on a behavior management method called “positive behavior support” (PSB).
To carry out part of the work in schools, TELUQ requested the services of GECA. In passing, she retained “indirect costs” of 15%, a common practice in academia. “The balance was paid to GECA,” confirms the University.
“Mandated”, not “delegated”
Registered in Ontario, the GECA company belongs to Normand St-Georges, who presents himself as a TELUQ research professional, a title that the institution rejects. Mr. St-Georges works closely with education professor Steve Bissonnette.
TELUQ was in hot water in 2018 after subcontracting, without a call for tenders, educational supervision and exam correction to a private company, the MATCI Institute. This time, with GECA, it ensures that it does not “delegate its research activities to a private company”.
In the Communications Department, the director, Élisabeth Farinacci, maintains that TELUQ’s research work is carried out “exclusively” by Mr. Bissonnette. She lists this work: “validation of the quality of the implementation of the program, analysis of the effects observed, publication of research results”.
However, analysis tasks are indeed part of the mandate granted to GECA.
The contracts stipulate that the private company’s mission includes “analyzing the fidelity of the implementation” and “measuring the effects” of a system based on the SCP. GECA must also train school staff, explain how to apply the SCP and meet with members of management, among other tasks. Normand St-Georges has also published articles with Mr. Bissonnette on the subject of the SCP.
In an interview, Mr. Bissonnette explains that GECA carries out “very specific activities” for him in schools, because his teaching schedule does not allow him to be as present in the field as SCP mandates require. “It is not delegating: it is mandating a person to carry out activities based on the agreements that I have signed. The research is me doing it. The articles that are published on the SCP, it’s me who publishes them, it’s not Normand St-Georges,” he says.
When Duty reminds him that he does indeed publish articles with Mr. St-Georges, Mr. Bissonnette agrees. “He works with me. The least we can do in terms of recognition is to put his name on papers when he participated in the implementation of the system in schools,” he says.
Subcontracting?
Madeleine Pastinelli, who chairs the Quebec Federation of University Professors, explains in an interview that it is common for a professor or a university to delegate certain research activities that he or she is not able to do, such as research interviews, translation, infographics or web development. “What I would be less likely to do is get a $100,000 research contract, turn around and subcontract it to a private company. […] This raises questions like: what is the University doing in this? Why does it go through the University if it is subcontracted elsewhere? »
“What you describe seems to me to be consistent with what can be done in other contexts. On the other hand, what raises questions in the context is: what is the purpose of the company? [GECA] ? Why is it not a research professional employed by the University and, ultimately, contracted by the University, who is entrusted with the work? » she asks.
In the context of this file, Duty discovered that TELUQ asked Mr. St-Georges not to use the title of research professional, since its internal policy prohibits him from awarding contracts to the company of one of its employees.
What raises questions in context is: what is the purpose of the company? [GECA] ? Why is it not a research professional employed by the University and, ultimately, contracted by the University, who is entrusted with the work?
Unwise CSS
School service centers (CSS) which paid TELUQ to carry out work in their schools claim, in certain cases, not to have been informed of GECA’s involvement in the research activities.
For example, GECA received $55,000 in 2014-2016 for a mandate at the CSS des Laurentides, which had retained the services of TELUQ. Same scenario at CSS des Appalaches, where GECA obtained $15,217 in 2016-2017 to “continue the implementation of the SCP”. These two CSSs told the Duty not hold any documents or information about GECA.
The CSS des Bois-Francs — where GECA obtained a $17,910 contract from TELUQ in 2016-2017 to implement the SCP — also said it was not able to find any document about Mr. St-Georges or of GECA.
The Vallée-des-Tisserands CSS, on the other hand, assured that it had been informed of the fact that Mr. St-Georges “acted as the owner of the company GECA inc. », who received $14,000 for this work in 2015-2016. On the ground, it was Mr. St-Georges who was active in supporting a school where the SCP was implemented. “According to the information we were able to obtain, the person who accompanied the Arthur-Pigeon school in its efforts was Mr. Normand Saint-Georges and not Mr. Bissonnette,” wrote the director of the CSS communications department, Luc Langevin.