News of nearly $600,000 in contracts being awarded by the University of Guelph without a competitive bid process have sparked a police investigation.
Guelph police are providing few details about that investigation, but do say they have received multiple complaints against the university.
“It’s difficult for me to divulge anything for fear of ruining the integrity of the investigation,” Const. Chris Probst said Thursday.
Documents obtained by CTV News show that Tenzing Communications was awarded nearly $600,000 to help update the university’s branding by creating videos, revamping its website and redesigning the school’s logo.
The province requires that universities take competitive bids on projects with values above $100,000.
School officials have said that they followed appropriate procurement and purchasing practices in working with Tenzing.
The university first hired Tenzing in 2016 for a communications audit. In that case, a competitive bidding process was utilized.
Documents show that the university justified using Tenzing for the branding work because their experience with the audit left than “perfectly positioned” to take to take on the new project.
University officials and Tenzing representatives declined to comment on this story.
