Ex-Montreal city engineer 'Mr. TPS' banned from Order of Engineers

The retired City of Montreal engineer who earned the nickname 'Mr. TPS' during the Charbonneau corruption inquiry has been banned from the province's Order of Engineers for five years. 

• Montreal engineer has 'bitter regrets' about role in bid-rigging
• Gilles Surprenant takes the stand at Charbonneau commission

A disciplinary board made the decision to ban Surprenant on Wednesday, after it found him guilty of violating six articles of the order's code of ethics, as well as a section of the City of Montreal's professional code.

The board found Surprenant committed these infractions between 2000 and 2009, the year he retired.

Surprenant, who worked as a city engineer for 33 years, became known as the alleged architect behind the city's cash-for-contracts scheme following testimony from ex-construction boss and star witness Lino Zambito before the Charbonneau Commission in 2012.

Zambito alleged that Surprenant skimmed one per cent for himself on certain contracts.

Zambito testified that Surprenant claimed a so-called "TPS" — the name being a tongue-in-cheek twist on the French-language acronym for the federal sales tax, GST. Zambito said "TPS" stood for 'Taxe Pour Surprenant' (Tax for Surprenant).

In his own testimony before the commission, Surprenant admitted to being part of a kickback scheme on public contracts for nearly 20 years of his career with the city. He claimed he received about $600,000 in kickbacks, and in return, he inflated costs on certain contracts.

Surprenant maintained, however, that he was merely a participant in the alleged collusion scheme, and not the ringleader.

Last year, a disciplinary board banned another city engineer for 10 years, after he also admitted taking cash bribes. 

Luc Leclerc admitted to taking 25 per cent from the contingency costs on inflated bills construction companies charged on public projects.