Guilty of having kept silent in Longueuil

Photo By Christopher Nardi
The ex-director of engineering in Longueuil Christian Had photographed yesterday at his arrival for his appearance before the disciplinary Council of the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec, in Montreal.

Christopher Nardi

Wednesday, 17 January, 2018 01:00

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Wednesday, 17 January, 2018 01:00

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After having long turned a blind eye to collusion, a former director of engineering in Longueuil is said to have been demoted because of his refusal to obey the order of the director-general of the day to award a contract to an engineering firm collusionnaire.

Now retired, the former civil servant in Longueuil Christian Had pleaded guilty before the disciplinary Council of the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec (OIQ), yesterday, having kept the silence for years on the collusion between the five engineering firms, the two organizers of political and some civil servants.

“I knew that it happened, but I ran out of courage in order to denounce it “, he admitted, the mine is low. As an officer of the engineering section, Mr. Had confessed that he provided a list of all municipal projects to come to its superiors.

He admitted that he knew very well that this list was meant for the political organizer Serge Sévigny, which was to be used to allocate the municipal contracts between the five engineering firms collusionnaires.

His testimony and that of the syndic of the OIQ, Réal Giroux, came out to support the story of Monday’s Journal, which mentions the system of collusion that had helped to Consultants HM, Dessau, Genivar, SNC-Lavalin and Cima+ to share almost exclusively to municipal contracts in Longueuil between 2002 and 2009.

In exchange, the companies were recurring gifts of $ 5,000 to $ 25,000 to the Party city of Longueuil, according to the OIQ.

Order of the DG

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Guy Benedetti
Ex-DG of Longueuil

In order to prove the extent of the collusion, Mr. Had has told how his ex-boss Guy Benedetti, then DG of Longueuil, and now DG of the Town of Rosemère, tried to force him to choose Cima+ to an engineering contract. Mr. Benedetti said yesterday in the Newspaper that the story told by Mr. Had is ” quite wrong “.

It is important to know that at the time, Mr. Necessary served some selection committees that judged the bids of the companies. Its task was to assess whether each bidder had the technical capacity to do the job well and, if yes, submitted the best price.

Thus, Mr. Had to be told that it is a Mr Benedetti “ill at ease” who had come to see in 2009 for him to say that Cima+ was to receive a certain contract.

M. Had argued that Cima+ had not properly prepared its bid, and therefore did not reach the score required to be eligible. Him and the other two members of the committee have, therefore, awarded the contract to another company.

Downgrade

It is at this time that his relationship with Mr Benedetti would be acrimonious and, two years later, he was demoted to the post of deputy director, he said. According to his testimony, it was a direct result of his refusal to give the contract to Cima+.

“Mr. Benedetti and I was hooked in the hallway and he chewed my ass a solid by telling me that I would have had to, as director of engineering, to influence the whole of the selection committee and to pass Cima+, said Mr. Necessary. After that, it was hell with Mr Benedetti, it was a mess as a work situation. “

During his testimony, the syndic of the OIQ has indicated that other witnesses had confirmed the veracity of this episode.

Different levels of participation in the scheme

Club

• Consultants HM
• Dessau

Club B

• Genivar
• Cima +

Club C

• SNC-Lavalin

* According to the information of the Order of engineers of Quebec

There is no paper trail of this system

It was particularly difficult to prove collusion in Longueuil, because there is no paper trail between companies faulty and municipal partners, according to the trustee of the Quebec Order of engineers.

“Unlike other locations, there was no e-mail between the participants in the collusion. While this mechanism worked by phone, or by discussions that were taking place at golf Le Parcours du Cerf, which belonged to the City, ” testified Réal Giroux yesterday, during the disciplinary hearing of the former director of engineering in Longueuil, Christian Had to.

“bathed in oil “

“In addition, the few people who would have tried to resist this system, either actively or passively, was quickly to cram,” added the trustee.

“Collusion in Longueuil are bathed in oil. It was a mechanism that worked very, very well, especially with five firms docile which were in the process. If someone put a little sand in the gears […] it had the effect to annoy several people “, detailed Mr. Giroux.

If Dessau, Consultants HM, Cima+, Genivar, and SNC-Lavalin were all part of the collusion in Longueuil, they did not at equal level, have also revealed MM. Giroux and Necessary.

levels of involvement

Indeed, the five firms were divided into three “clubs,” ranging from ” A ” to ” C “. The members of the club ” A ” or Dessau, and Consultants, HM, were those who were most involved in Longueuil, were the more to the cashier of the municipal Party and Longueuil, in the present instance, had the lion’s share of municipal contracts, was explained by Mr. Giroux yesterday.

If he has sworn never to have participated voluntarily in the conspiracy in Longueuil, Mr Been has even admitted yesterday in front of the disciplinary Board that he very well knew at the time that this hierarchical system of clubs existed.

The trustee also welcomed the collaboration of Mr. Necessary to its investigation in Longueuil, stating that the former director of engineering has allowed his team to better understand the functioning of the collusion within the municipal.

♦ The disciplinary Council will announce in the coming months, what sanction it will impose on Christian Taken in response to his guilty plea.