The Quebec government is looking into taking legal action against top officials at the province’s automobile insurance board, known as the SAAQ, as well as the private firms involved in the disastrous launch of its website.
The premier has asked Treasury Board President France-Élaine Duranceau to lead a committee looking into the recommendations outlined in a nearly 600-page report tabled by Judge Denis Gallant Monday, following the public inquiry into the SAAQ’s digital transition.
The report found top officials with the SAAQ had lied to the government for years about the hundreds of millions of dollars in cost overruns the digital transformation project would see.
“No one in the real world working for a private company could have acted the way they did and kept their jobs,” Duranceau said in a news conference at the National Assembly Tuesday morning. “They would have been shown the door.”
But the law isn’t necessarily on the government’s side when it comes to taking that legal action, Duranceau acknowledged.
Quebec’s Automobile Insurance Act shields SAAQ employees from civil liability for acts performed in good faith in the exercise of their duties.
“We’re looking at all legal actions that are possible. There are also disciplinary measures that are going to be looked at,” said Duranceau. “And if nothing’s possible then we’re going to look at what can be changed in the law to make it possible.”
She added that while a civil suit may not be possible, that immunity does not extend to criminal conduct.
Quebec’s anti-corruption force, UPAC, is also still investigating the SAAQ and further legal consequences could result from that, she said.
“Taxpayers are tired of paying for digital projects that don’t roll out as they should and always cost more than they were supposed to,” she said.
Duranceau said the government is also looking into attracting and retaining people with more expertise in information technology to work on future digital transformation projects, and she said that could mean paying people more to compete with private firms.
The SAAQ, meanwhile, is promising an overhaul in the way its services are managed and its CEO is offering a public apology following the release of the report.
“Personally, it shocked me,” SAAQ CEO Serge Lamontagne said in an interview Tuesday morning. “It’s a few high-level employees who lied to Quebecers and the government and I find it important to apologize on behalf of the [SAAQ].”
Lamontagne was named to the position long after the website’s launch.
He said the SAAQ has already made major changes to the way it’s run to avoid similar issues with projects in the future.
He also said the thousands of employees who worked without rest to resolve the crisis should not have their reputations tarnished because of the actions of a few people.
Those who were named in the report and accused of hiding information or lying to the government have already either stepped down or been replaced, he added.
The SAAQ is also looking into implementing the recommendations outlined in the report, as well as those included in the auditor general’s report last year and that of the Autorité des marchés publics.
“We will review everything that needs to be reviewed in terms of the policies and programs of the SAAQ,” said Lamontagne.
Lamontagne said the SAAQ is also looking into taking legal action against the individuals and private firms responsible for SAAQclic.
