Accused by the Office of Inspector General (BIG) of having defrauded the City of Montreal of at least $1 million, the Ricova company is defending itself, believing that it does not have to question the profits of Ricova International, “a separate company”.
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The company believes instead that the City has never made so much money from recycling, when it would have paid it $5.8 million in the last 14 months.
Ricova operates two sorting centers in Montreal, and it is also responsible for selling certain materials for recycling. In return, she had to give a share of the profiles of these sales to the City.
According to the BIG, Ricova sold these materials at a low price to Ricova International, which itself then resold them abroad at a high price, thus circumventing the contract with the City.
“The prices at which the materials were sold to Ricova International favor the City of Montreal”, rather believes Dominic Colubriale, CEO of Ricova, who believes that he has provided the City with the “best prices on the market”.
For him, the accusations of the BIG demonstrate a “misunderstanding” of the operation of recycling, the sorting centers not being equipped to sell recyclable materials internationally. He claims that Ricova International would offer the best prices for this service in Quebec.
“Insofar as Ricova RSC and Ricova Lachine have respected the contracts to the letter, the City does not have to question the profits made by Ricova International, an entity completely separate from the sorting centers,” said Mr. Colubriale. .
However, this is not the first controversy that has affected Ricova in recent years, as our Bureau of Investigation reminded us on Monday.
In its report, the OIG recommended terminating contracts with the company “as soon as possible”.