Particular attention was paid to the health, education and municipal sectors, UPAC’s interim director says.
The period covering 2023-2024 was a good one for Quebec’s permanent anti-corruption unit (UPAC), according to the squad’s interim director Éric René.
“Practically all of our indicators were up,” he told reporters on Wednesday as he detailed the unit’s annual report.
UPAC received 450 complaints of wrongdoing over the past year and dealt with each of them within an average of one week’s time. Nearly 30 per cent of the complaints came from the public sector.
“These complaints are essential to our work and the integrity of the state,” René said.
Last year, activities by UPAC aimed a preventing the risk of corruption reached more than 5,000 people, an increase of 26 per cent over the previous year.
René said particular attention was paid to the health, education and municipal sectors.
Meanwhile, UPAC’s audit service provided 1,660 reports to the Autorité des marchés publics (AMP), aimed at ensuring the probity of companies dealing with the provincial government.
It took an average of nine days to produce each report, a 67-per-cent increase over 2022-2023.
The independent audit department of the Commission de la construction du Québec (CCQ), which works within UPAC, also filed claims seeking more than $1 million for 47,000 hours of undeclared work on construction sites.
Investigations last year by UPAC, the Régie du bâtiment du Québec and Revenu Québec resulted in 326 charges being filed, 283 convictions and $1.1 million in fines being levied.
Investigations into fake vaccination certificates represented 90 per cent of the penal cases.
René said that over the past five years, the squad’s conviction rate has been 90 per cent.