Little has been said about the dismissal of two construction executives from SNC-Lavalin except for the company's terse explanation that it was for "conduct" and a news report that a consultant to SNC was arrested in Mexico for an alleged plot to smuggle Muammar el Qaddafi's son, Saadi, there.

Now, the company that did major business in Lbya before the overthrow of Quaddifi's government is looking into what it says was the improper allocation of $35 million in payments, Engineering News Record reports.

"The payments were made in the fourth quarter of 2011 and 'were documented to construction projects to which they did not relate,'" ENR quoted SNC-Lavalin as saying late last month.

The New York Times reported last month that SNC-Lavalin paid consultant Cynthia Vanier "more than $100,000 to travel to Libya, despite her evident inexperience in the region.

ENR said the company's attorneys had written to Vanier's lawyers saying, "SNC-Lavalin has never authorized any contracts or dealing of any kind with your clients and therefore, all services your clients may have rendered have been requested by employees acting outside the scope of their normal duties with the company.”