World Bank debarment of SNC-Lavalin Inc. over the Padma Bridge project (2013)

The World Bank resolution

The World Bank Group announced on 17 April 2013 the debarment of SNC-Lavalin Inc. and over 100 affiliates "for a period of 10 years" ¹. The release names SNC-Lavalin Inc. as a subsidiary of the Canadian company SNC-Lavalin Group ¹.

The Bank said the debarment is part of a Negotiated Resolution Agreement between the World Bank and SNC-Lavalin Group ¹. It said "The debarment can be reduced to eight years if the companies comply with all conditions of the agreement" ¹. The rest of the group was conditionally non-debarred for the same period ¹. The release says a failure to comply exposes the rest of the group to debarment ¹.

Under the current World Bank procedure, issued in 2023, a settlement agreement is signed by INT and the respondent and reviewed by the Suspension and Debarment Officer ⁴. It is not a decision of the Sanctions Board ⁴.

Misconduct described by the Bank

The release says the debarment followed "the company's misconduct in relation to the Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project in Bangladesh" ¹. It describes the misconduct as "a conspiracy to pay bribes and misrepresentations when bidding for Bank-financed contracts" ¹. The release says this breached the Bank's procurement guidelines ¹.

The Bank said that during its investigation it learned of "misconduct by SNC-Lavalin Inc. in relation to the World Bank-financed Rural Electrification and Transmission project" in Cambodia ¹. The Bank said "we referred the matter to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police whilst the World Bank finalized its investigation" ¹.

Integrity Vice President Leonard McCarthy said "This case is testimony to collective action against global corruption" ¹.

Padma Bridge background

In a statement of 20 September 2012, the World Bank said it had "announced the cancellation of a $1.2 billion IDA credit for the Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project" on 29 June 2012 ². It said its investigative unit had shared with the Government of Bangladesh "credible evidence of corruption related to our financing of the bridge" ². The statement set out steps the government had agreed, including an independent external panel to review the government's investigation ². That statement concerns the Bank and the government. It does not set out the SNC-Lavalin sanction ².

Cross-debarment

The Bank said the debarment "qualifies for cross-debarment by other MDBs under the Agreement of Mutual Recognition of Debarments" signed on 9 April 2010 ¹. The Asian Development Bank names the same pact the Agreement for Mutual Enforcement of Debarment Decisions and lists the African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, EBRD, Inter-American Development Bank and World Bank as signatories ³. Under that agreement a debarment must be public and its initial period must exceed one year ³.

This page has not confirmed which banks enforced the SNC-Lavalin debarment. No SNC-Lavalin entry appeared on the African Development Bank's current list of debarred entities when it was checked in October 2026 ⁵. That list shows current entries, so this does not show whether the AfDB enforced the debarment in the past ⁵.