What kind of disclosure is protected?
Who is eligible for protection?
The Act protects any person who has a necessary interest to file a complaint about a tendering or awarding process.
Under the Act, a person with interest is defined as:
- Tendering Process: an individual or groups of individuals (general partnerships, a group of general partnerships, businesses) interested in the tendering process or its representative.
- Awarding Process: any interested person (business) able to fulfil the contract according to the needs and obligations stipulated in the notice of intention.
Disclosures regarding information protected by solicitor-client privilege is prohibited under the Act s.56.
How are whistleblowers protected?
The Act protects any person who, while acting in good faith and on the basis of reasonable doubt, has made a protected disclosure to the Autorité or has cooperated in an investigation regarding a disclosure against any kind of reprisal s.51. It is also forbidden to threaten to take a reprisal against a person so that the person will abstain from communicating information or cooperating in an audit conducted on the grounds of such a communication s.63.
Under the Act, a reprisal s. 64 includes the demotion, suspension, dismissal, transfer or any other disciplinary measure that adversely affects the employment of a person who has made a protected disclosure.
How should disclosures be made?
In order to submit a complaint with the Autorité, employees may fill and submit the following electronic form.
The Autorité will not accept complaints submitted past the due dates s.39:
- In the case of a complaint pertaining to an awarding process, an interested person can submit a complaint:
- not later than three days after receipt of the decision handed down by a public body with which the person disagrees.
- In the case of a complaint pertaining to an awarding process (following a notice of intention), an interested person can submit a complaint:
- not later than three days after receipt of the decision in the case of disagreement with the body’s decision to maintain the conclusion of a contract by mutual agreement following an expression of interest.
When considering whether to make a disclosure, an employee may apply to the Public Prosecutor for access to legal advice s.58.
For more information on the process to submit a disclosure to the Autorité, follow this link: https://amp.quebec/en/file-complaint/.