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OTTAWA – A multinational engineering company that in 2000 was awarded a $250,000 grant by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) to study a proposed hydro dam in Belize donated more than $31,000 to the Liberal party during the same election year.

Months after the Canadian affiliate of AMEC PLC made the donation, CIDA officials almost doubled the AMEC grant to $466,234, government documents show.

Gráinne Ryder, a policy director at Probe International, a Toronto-based environmental group, said the case highlights the close links between giant engineering firms seeking Third World work and the politicians in the developed world who pull the foreign aid purse strings.

“The particular division of CIDA which approved and then increased the value of the AMEC grant – the Industrial Co-Operation Branch – is a patronage machine with no public oversight,” she said.

David Paterson, a Toronto-based AMEC senior vice-president of corporate affairs, said there is no link between the donation and the $466,234 grant. “There is absolutely no connection at all between the work we did on this project and any of our political donations,” Mr. Paterson said.

“Our company supports the political process and all parties.”

AMEC donated $12,000 each to the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative party in 2000 but donated no money to the New Democratic Party or the Bloc Québécois.

Deepak Obhrai, the Alliance international development critic, suggested a pattern that companies that donate money to the Liberal party also get government grants and contracts.

“I don’t think Canadians like this behaviour. It leaves a bad taste,” he said.

Last week, opposition MPs suggested in Parliament there were links between $158-million in sponsorship contracts awarded to Quebec marketing agencies that also donated $236,000 to the Liberal party.

Mr. Paterson said that while he understands “the line of questioning” by those drawing links between political donations and large government grants or contracts, he thinks it is “highly irresponsible” to do so.

The internal government documents disclosed by CIDA under the federal Access to Information Act show the first grant awarded to AMEC was for $249,378 and given to its Agra-Monenco Inc. affiliate on June 1, 2000.

The original grant called for the company to do an environmental assessment of a $45-million hydroelectric dam project proposed by Belize Electricity Inc., a subsidiary of Fortis Inc. of St. John’s.

AMEC executives proposed that CIDA hire their company for the job; no public tenders were called for the enironmental assessment.

AMEC donated $27,325 to the Liberal party, while Agra donated another $3,868 in 2000, according to records of donations filed with Elections Canada.

The Liberals were returned to power on Nov. 27, 2000.

Five months later, the AMEC grant was almost doubled to $466,234 in an amendment signed by Suzanne Dubois, CIDA’s Industrial Co-Operation program manager for its Americas bureau, internal CIDA documents show.

Ginette LeBreton, a CIDA spokeswoman, said the federal agency has no knowledge of AMEC’s political donations during the last federal election year.

She said the value of the AMEC grant was almost doubled because CIDA decided to pay for public consultations about the project in Belize, which was organized and staged by AMEC, and for other impact studies.