What fate reserved justice for Olivier Dussopt? Ousted from the government, the former Minister of Labor will hear the court’s verdict this Wednesday for alleged acts of favoritism during the award of the public water contract in 2009 when he was mayor of Annonay in Ardèche.
The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) requested a ten-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of 15,000 euros against him. His lawyer pleaded for release in order to “restore his honor”.
A call for tenders for the benefit of Saur
Olivier Dussopt is suspected of having provided privileged information concerning a call for tenders, for the benefit of the water supply and treatment group Saur (Urban and Rural Development Company). He is also suspected of having changed the evaluation criteria of this call for tenders, relating to a market worth 5.6 million euros, by reducing the importance given to the price to favor this company, holder of a public service delegation to manage the town’s water since 1994 but more expensive than competing companies.
Criticizing serious “breaches” of the “duty to set an example” by elected officials, in the hope of “political gain”, the prosecution did not, however, require ineligibility “in view of the age of the facts” .
Dussopt is not in the “prospect” of a conviction
During a search of the former minister’s home as part of the preliminary investigation opened in May 2020 after an article in Mediapart, investigators had seized the report of a meeting at the end of July 2009 between Olivier Dussopt and Olivier Brousse, former general director of Saur, also accused in this affair for complicity in favoritism. The search also uncovered an email from the elected official to municipal services, requesting the modification of clauses in the specifications and the reduction of the importance given to price in the evaluation of candidates’ offers.
On the basis of these documents, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office concluded that the minister had “provided or attempted to provide privileged information” to Olivier Brousse in connection with the “future” water markets, while the municipality had decided to switch from a public service delegation to a management company.
At the end of his trial last November, Olivier Dussopt said he was not putting himself in the “perspective” of a possible conviction for favoritism. “A trial is an experience I wouldn’t wish on anyone. But it also allowed me to respond point by point to the accusations and questions,” he explained in an interview with Parisian.