UPAC continues probe into GNIeau water-meter contract

For the third time this week, Quebec's anti-corruption unit raided businesses reportedly linked to a water-meter contract with the City of Montreal.

About 60 officers with UPAC were deployed at four locations in Montreal and Sherbrooke to conduct the searches.

• Mayor cancels Montreal's $355M water meter contract
• Ex-city manager says he was naive, not corrupt
• UPAC raids engineering firm BPR in Quebec City and Montreal
• Anti-corruption police raid Frank Catania & Associates office in Brossard

No one has been arrested, but investigators are looking for evidence to support suspicions about a $355-million water-meter contract signed in 2007, when former mayor Grald Tremblay was in office.

The contract, which was awarded to consortium GNIeau, was cancelled two years later after costs ballooned and a report alleged there wereirregularities with the tendering process.

Tony Accurso owned one of the businesses inthe consortium.

On Tuesday, investigators targeted a Brossard business owned by Frank Catania, a man whose name and businesses have surfaced at the Charbonneau Commission.

Last week, searches were conducted at the Montreal offices of engineering-consulting firm BPR.

In spring 2014, members of the firm testified atthe CharbonneauCommission about its alleged involvement in awater meter overbilling scheme.Three engineers with the firm pleaded guilty to charges related to their participation in that system.