Michael Lewis
Special to Ontario Construction News
The former president of Bondfield Construction Co. Ltd. and a former senior executive at Toronto’s St. Michael’s hospital have been found guilty of two counts of fraud over $5,000 related to the bidding process for a $300 million expansion project at the Toronto hospital.
A Superior Court judge in Toronto on Oct. 6 found that Vas Georgiou, the former chief administrative officer at St. Michael’s, had shared privileged information with John Aquino, who had been Bondfield’s president during bidding on the project.
“The evidence that the defendants acted dishonestly over the course of the procurement process is overwhelming,” Superior Court Justice Peter Bawden said in his decision.
Georgiou provided Aquino with insider information that was “confidential, highly material and obviously intended to assist Bondfield to win the procurement,” the decision said. “That conduct would be recognized as objectively dishonest in any circumstances, but when seen in the context of a strictly regulated public procurement, it is unmistakable.”
The cases against both men, which involve allegations of collusion and kickbacks, date back to 2015, when Bondfield was selected as the winning bidder to redevelop the hospital in downtown Toronto.
While Georgiou was working as one of the evaluators on Bondfield’s bid for the project he failed to disclose he was personally involved in two businesses owned by Aquino. Citing these undisclosed conflicts, the hospital fired Georgiou in 2015.
In 2019, Bondfield sought bankruptcy protection, resulting in the largest financial loss from the collapse of a construction company in Canada’s history. Scores of unpaid subcontractors submitted claims to Zurich, which had provided more than $1 billion in construction surety bonds – on Bondfield’s construction projects, including St. Michael’s.
Construction had been slated to finish on St Michael’s in 2019 but is now slated to be completed next year. While the majority of the patient care tower is operational, there is some outstanding work on the tower and project overall, Catholic healthcare network Unity Health said in a statement.
A number of renovations are ongoing, including the emergency department expansion and renovations to the intensive care unit, it said. The project includes a new 17-storey patient tower, more operating rooms and an expanded emergency department.