Engineering services company TPG Technology Consulting has resurrected an old quarrel with the federal government, with the launch of a $250-million lawsuit Monday.

"When Senator Fortier, Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) was appointed, he stated that the government would follow principles of accountability and transparency. Well, nothing could be further from the truth," said TPG president Don Powell at a press conference.

Ottawa-based TPG in April 2007 filed a grievance against Public Works alleging that the government had deliberately altered its technical evaluation of a competitive bid from Montreal-based CGI Group to favour that company in the awarding of a $428-million contract. TPG also called for a public inquiry into the matter.

The contract was for the right to supply support services for the computers and networks which run large government programs, such as the Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security.

At the time, TPG said the selection of CGI was suspicious due to the Public Works minister's relationship with CGI's president and previous dealings with CGI while the minister was employed at Credit Suisse First Boston, and warned that 200 Ottawa workers would lose their jobs as a result of the award.

TPG originally won the same contract in 1999, with no other bidders for the job, but Mr. Powell says the government changed the specifications of the request for proposals when it was reopened for bidding in May 2006, to prevent TPG from qualifying.

Mr. Powell told the OBJ in April that Public Works had changed the reference requirements in the RFPs so that the winning company would have had to have completed several large projects, which TPG had not done as a mid-sized company. He also argued TPG should have won based on its financial bid, which he said was lower than any other proposal in the competition by "tens of millions of dollars."

Then, the local company said that in February 2008 it obtained copies of the evaluation of its proposal as a result of a third-party Access to Information request, which showed that TPG should have received a higher score and won the contract by "a decisive margin."

"These documents provide conclusive proof that certain low scores given to TPG in the 'official' results were picked out of thin air, and are not based on the scores awarded by the evaluation team," the company's statement read. "The pattern of tainted scores makes it certain that these scores could not have been picked by the evaluation team."

TPG said an analysis of what it said are the legitimate scores shows that TPG should have been awarded a technical score of at least 62 out of 65, but that its official score was reduced to 57.

"TPG now has no alternative but to seek redress through the courts, and has filed a breach of contract lawsuit against PWGSC for failing to honour its duty of fairness to bidders in evaluating the RFP," the company stated. "Equally unacceptable, PWGSC is also in breach of contract over the implementation of the new contract, since the department has refused to enforce many mandatory requirements defined in the RFP, putting at risk the interests of millions of Canadians."

TPG also said Public Works has attempted to "plunder TPG resources" by trying to recruit the company's technical personnel to help implement the new contract, despite having refused to hire them earlier through the rejection of TPG's bid. As a result, the company said taxpayers are paying more to use the same services they could have received at a lower cost.

"The conduct of PWGSC throughout this procurement has been shocking and unacceptable. I am confident that the courts will deal with this conduct in the harshest terms," said Mr. Powell. "But what is not right here is that the taxpayers will ultimately pay the bill for PWGSC's mismanagement and unlawful actions."