Sixteen years after the events, the former president of one of the largest road construction companies in Quebec was sentenced to one year of house arrest for having participated in the rigging of a call for tenders by the Ministry of Transport in Granby.
Marcel Roireau “admitted to having participated in the scheme from 2008 to 2009,” the Competition Bureau wrote in a press release published Thursday. He was then vice-president of Construction DJL, before being promoted to president in 2010.
Roireau coordinated with its competitors Sintra and Pavages Maska to “dictate the winners of contracts, prices and the quality of products and services” in the context of asphalt paving contracts, the federal agency said.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Marcel Roireau worked for Construction DJL Inc., which was already ordered to pay $1.5 million as part of a settlement agreement last January.
In the same case, the Superior Court ordered DJL to pay $1.5 million as part of a settlement. The company also had to repay overpayments through the Quebec government’s Voluntary Reimbursement Program.
It took the Competition Bureau 15 years to conclude its investigation and lay charges, in September 2023.
As early as 2014 before the Charbonneau Commission, Roireau reluctantly admitted to having contributed to a collusion system. “I’m not saying it’s false, I’m not saying it’s true,” he said in response to questions about an asphalt price-fixing agreement.
He explained how DJL had shared the Montérégie territory with competitors when he was director for this region in the late 1990s. Roireau also admitted to having discussed the price of bids with his competitor Sintra.
The former president of DJL also admitted that his company had used nominees until 2010 to finance political parties between 1998 and 2011.
Read “Asphalt Contracts: Non-Aggression Pacts and Meetings with Competitors”
Trial in sight for the former CEO of Maska
In addition, proceedings are continuing against Serge Daunais, former vice-president and general manager of Pavages Maska. For his part, he has pleaded not guilty to charges of rigging a call for tenders.
It is The Press who informed him of the conviction of his alleged accomplice at DJL at the time, during a telephone interview on Thursday.
He would not say whether he still planned to plead not guilty at his trial scheduled for November. “We’ll see when we get to court,” Daunais said. “This has been going on for almost 20 years. One day more, one day less, it won’t change much…”
PHOTO ARCHIVES THE PRESS
Serge Daunais of Pavages Maska, during his visit to the Charbonneau Commission
Sintra leaders escape
The Competition Bureau says another company, Sintra Inc., participated in the scheme, but no charges have been filed against a Sintra representative in this case.
The federal agency mentions in its press release that its “immunity and leniency program” allows “any person who believes to be involved in an illegal agreement with its competitors” to avoid prosecution by collaborating.
In 2014, the former CEO of Sintra, Normand Bédard, admitted to having participated in a collusion system for the sharing of road contracts before the Charbonneau Commission on corruption and collusion in construction.
Like Sintra, DJL found itself at the heart of allegations of malfeasance in public contracts that came to light after an initial report on collusion in public contracts aired on Radio-Canada in 2009. The Charbonneau Commission then looked into the behaviour of dozens of companies, including SNC-Lavalin (now AtkinsRéalis), Construction Frank Catania and Tony Accurso’s companies, Simard-Beaudry and Louisbourg Construction.