On April 5, 2017, Metro Vancouver awarded a contract to Acciona, a Spanish multinational conglomerate that reported 2023 revenue of about C$25 billion. The company was to build the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant (NSWWTP) for C$525 million. Completion date for the sewage treatment plant was 2020.

Acciona was fired by Metro Vancouver near the end of 2021. Three years later, the project is incomplete and the expected cost has risen to almost $4 billion. Metro Vancouver now hopes the plant will be operational by 2030. Bob Mackin provides a timeline of events related to the project HERE.

Acciona is one of the prime contractors on Site C, the hydroelectric project that is likely to finish at 2.5x its initial budget. The company has a troubled record:

• Spain found that Acciona was involved in 25 years of illegal collaboration with other contracting companies. They met weekly to reduce competition. Thousands of projects, including hospitals, ports, airports, and roads, were affected by their actions. Spain fined the companies almost C$300 million.

• Spain’s competition authority fined Acciona C$3.4 million and recommended the company be denied further contracts because of cartel behavior in road maintenance as part of public tenders of the Ministry of Development..

• Brazilian prosecutors alleged that Acciona was involved in bribes paid to secure contracts for infrastructure projects. The company was accused of participating in a scheme where payments were made to secure favorable treatment and ensure the awarding of contracts for large projects.

• Two high-ranking executives at Spanish builders Acciona and FCC were arrested as part of an investigation into irregular concessions at state-run water contract company Acuamed.

• According to the World Bank, Acciona engaged in corrupt, collusive, and fraudulent conduct in order to secure a contract for a project supervising a World Bank-financed roads and airports infrastructure project in Bolivia.

• The World Bank debarred Acciona from participating in bank financed infrastructure projects for 28 months because of corrupt, collusive and fraudulent practices.

• Acciona and the owners of a waste-to-energy plant in Western Australia are fighting in court over a troubled project worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

• Acciona is involved in controversy at the site of a billion dollar incinerator project near London England.

Despite problems, Acciona is popular when BC’s public officials are awarding contracts. The company is now involved in multi-billion projects in Surrey and Vancouver to extend SkyTrain. It is one of the contractors for the new Pattullo bridge and is part of the public-private partnership for renewal of Royal Jubilee Hospital.

Taxpayers should be raising hell.

Acciona is what it is, but local government officials deserve blame for the costly North Shore debacle. Not just for selecting the main contractor, but for vastly underestimating the cost and complexity of the project. Construction that takes ten years longer than anticipated and costs at least eight times more than first estimated prove serious levels of incompetence among the infrastructure managers.

Given Acciona’s track record, there might be more than human ineptitude involved.

Metro Vancouver has promised to think about an independent inquiry to look at the NSWWTP difficulties. The real need is for the province to appoint a royal commission with broad ability to investigate financial and engineering calamities affecting all BC megaprojects. The inquiry should be able to compel public officials to explain processes that result in massive cost increases and troublesome delays.

FAILING UPWARD: the idea that someone succeeds in their career despite being mediocre or incompetent.