OTTAWA - The SNC-Lavalin affair has attracted the attention of an international organization that now advises it is watching the situation.
The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) has heard the allegations the Liberal government tried to influence a criminal prosecution against the Quebec engineering firm to determine whether Canada is violating its commitment to an international anti-bribery convention.
The OECD's working group on bribery says in a statement it is "concerned” by accusations that Trudeau and staff in his office tried to get former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to let the Quebec engineering giant negotiate a remediation agreement rather than face criminal charges.
The group says it is particularly keeping an eye on the twin federal investigations of the allegations, including one by the House of Commons justice committee that is to continue this week.
SNC-Lavalin is accused of bribing Libyan officials between 2001 and 2011 to win business there.
Canada is one of 44 nations that in 1999 signed the legally binding Anti-Bribery Convention.
A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland says Canada “firmly supports” the OECD and notes Canada was a founding country in the Anti-Bribery Convention.