After that of Éric Dupond-Moretti, the trial of another member of the current government opened on Monday: that of Olivier Dussopt. He protested against suspicions of favoritism during a public contract awarded in 2009. “I hope that this hearing will allow me to establish my good faith,” declared the Minister of Labor, 45, before the criminal court. of Paris, in a statement modeled on his previous public expressions regarding this trial.
He thus repeated his satisfaction that of the five grievances initially targeted by the preliminary investigation, opened in May 2020 after an article from Mediapart, “the prosecution (has) chosen to classify four of them” “It is a very important point for me, because it means that he has ruled out “any notion” of corruption, of personal enrichment,” insisted Olivier Dussopt, firing a machine gun and hands clasped behind his back.
He remains prosecuted for “favoritism”, an offense which emerges, according to the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) from two documents seized from his home in August 2020: the report of an interview with Olivier Brousse, the general director of the supply and of Saur water treatment, in July 2009 evoking the amount of a contract and the criteria of the call for tenders, and an email from the elected official sent shortly after to his services, asking to change several of these criteria.
Holder of several ministerial portfolios since 2017 and Minister of Labor for eighteen months, Olivier Dussopt has long defended himself at the helm of any desire to favor Saur.
Elected PS mayor of Annonay (Ardèche) in 2008, he put an end to the public service delegation attributed to this company since the 1960s, to transfer water management to public management. But the operation of drinking water and sanitation are immediately subcontracted, via two service delivery contracts lasting five years. Saur won the first at the end of 2009, for an amount of 5.6 million euros.
” I contest “
According to Olivier Dussopt, his interview with Olivier Brousse aimed “solely to know the reality of Saur’s margins”, “to anticipate as much as possible the margin we would have to lower the price and invest” in the renovation of the network. “I deny having indicated the slightest estimated price,” he adds.
The minister, on the other hand, admits to having changed the evaluation criteria of the call for tenders, by reducing the importance given to the price. “As soon as I was elected, I asked that the city’s purchasing policy be based on the highest bidder rather than the lowest bidder. Systematically, I asked for a rebalancing” in favor of technical criteria, he explains.
On the other hand, “I was unable to know whether Saur would be well or badly placed on the question of price”. He is also accused of having wanted to include a criterion on satisfaction with the outgoing service provider, “an illegal clause since it is discriminatory, the outgoing service provider being necessarily favored”, underlines the president of the court Bénédicte de Perthuis.
Trial ends Wednesday
“I was very struck by the fact that users found the service too expensive, but of good quality. My director of services told me that it was legally fragile, we did not retain it,” explains the defendant.
At the forefront when the prospect of a trial was made public, in February 2023, in the midst of protesting the pension reform project, Olivier Dussopt saw Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne renew her confidence in him.
Olivier Brousse, 58, now manager of a landscaping company, is on trial for complicity in favoritism, while Saur, the third largest water company in France, is being prosecuted for concealment of favoritism. They also dispute the facts.
The municipality of Annonay did not wish to become a civil party in this case.
This trial, which should end on Wednesday, comes after those of two other pillars of Macronie: the High Commissioner for Planning François Bayrou, who appeared until November 22 in the case of the assistants of MoDem MEPs, will be fixed on his fate on February 5. The current Minister of Justice Éric Dupond-Moretti was tried from November 6 to 17 for suspicion of illegal taking of interests by the Court of Justice of the Republic, which will render its decision on Wednesday.