UPAC boss Robert Lafrenière muses on progress at 5-year mark
Head of Quebec's anti-corruption unit measures success by more than arrests
One hundred and sixty-four arrests. Two thousand companies audited.
Not a bad tally for UPAC, Quebec's anti-corruption unit, after five years in operation.
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But UPAC Commissioner Robert Lafrenière says he measures the unit's success in more than just arrests, even high-profile ones.
Take, for example, the recent fraud and corruption charges laid against former Liberal deputy premier Nathalie Normandeau, former Liberal minister Marc-Yvan Côté and five others, following a lengthy UPAC investigation.
Lafrenière compares it to evaluating road safety.
"We look at the number of deaths [on the roads], so at the consequences of actions, and not at the number of tickets police officers hand out," he told CBC, while taking time out of a one-day conference aimed at examining how the fight against corruption is going in Quebec.
Success for his unit, he says, is seeing the cost of public contracts diminish – and taxpayers receiving proper value for their money – as authorities crack down on corruption schemes.
Lafrenière points to another indicator of how the unit has evolved: The number of tips UPAC receives for investigators to pursue has steadily grown over the years, with a current average of 50 a month.
"We started [UPAC] five years ago, with entities that didn't work together, except perhaps Revenu Québec and the Sûreté du Québec," he said. "There was resistance at first, and we had to understand everybody's role. There's still work to be done, but we've come a long way."
Advice from New York experts
Among the speakers at the UPAC conference was Quebec's Director of Penal and Criminal Prosecutions, Josée Granchamp, the City of Montreal's inspector general, Denis Gallant and Mark Peters, the head of New York City's Department of Investigation (DOI).
The DOI has been tackling corruption in New York's public institutions since 1873, and Peters said constant work – and vigilance – are critical.
Peters congratulated UPAC for the recent high-profile arrests, calling them "terrific work we saw all the way in New York."
But with that praise came some caution and advice.
"Never lose sight of the fact that, as much as you do, there's always more to do, and you always need to be thinking about what's next," Peters said, adding communication is key.
He said law enforcement authorities and the prosecutor's office must exchange information frequently about how to proceed with probes.
In his presentation, Peters also stressed that the focus must be on targeting systemic problems, rather than individual arrests.
"You can arrest a lot of people, but if you don't begin to look at whatever the systemic corruption vulnerabilities there are behind the arrests, you'll find yourself arresting the same groups of people again and again without making any real progress," he warned.
Hoping for another mandate
Lafrenière's mandate as UPAC commissioner expired on March 28, 2016, just days after the arrests of Normandeau and Côté shook the political world – particularly the Quebec Liberal Party.
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Amid speculation at the timing of the arrests, the commissioner has maintained it was coincidental, since the investigation into the seven people arrested took years.
The government has extended Lafrenière's mandate temporarily while officials consider a replacement, but Lafrenière has said he would like to stay – for continuity in the files and so he can continue the work his unit started five years ago.
"I love my job," he said with a laugh. "And I'm not yet finished that job."
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