A star witness who is blowing the whistle on corruption at a public inquiry in Quebec says the mayor of the province?s third-largest city was taking a 2.5 per cent cut on construction projects ? the same portion skimmed off by the mob on dirty contracts in Montreal.
Laval Mayor Gilles Vaillancourt, the target of recent police raids who has ruled over the suburb of Montreal nearly unopposed for decades, faced his most pointed accusation yet from Lino Zambito, the former head of Infrabec Construction.
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?In Laval it was clear the cut was 2.5 per cent that entrepreneurs gave to the mayor of Laval, Mr. Vaillancourt, through an intermediary,? Mr. Zambito testified.
Mr. Zambito later clarified that he never paid the 2.5 per cent to Mr. Vaillancourt himself, but that as an insider he had intimate knowledge of the system.
Mr. Vaillancourt denied collecting any amounts on city contracts. His spokeswoman, Johanne Bournival, said the mayor "is beside himself in the face of such lies."
Mr. Vaillancourt also denied any wrongdoing earlier this month when his home and Laval city hall were searched by the province?s anti-corruption squad.
Mr. Vaillancourt was not the only prominent Quebec politician who faced fresh scrutiny at the Charbonneau commission on corruption in the construction industry. Mr. Zambito named former Liberal cabinet minister Line Beauchamp as a politician who he says benefited from illegal financing.
Mr. Zambito said Liberal operative and the then-spouse of Ms. Beauchamp, who held the environment portfolio, collected $30,000 in cash from him for a breakfast fundraiser ? a sum 10 times the allowed annual contribution in the province.
Mr. Zambito testified that Pierre Bibeau solicited the donation from him for a fundraiser attended by about 20 people in 2009 where the former construction boss aired complaints about how environmental assessments were slowing down projects.
Mr. Zambito has testified that such donations were a routine and part of a system of kickbacks, bribes, and fixed bids that allowed companies to collude to inflate prices and sent money back to elected officials, political parties, bureaucrats and the mob.
Mr. Zambito has described how at its peak around 2005, his company, Infrabec, was hauling in about $30-million in revenue while kicking back hundreds of thousands in cash to a list of corrupt officials and colleagues.
In his sixth day of testimony, Mr. Zambito, whose company went bankrupt shortly after some of his activities were exposed by team of Radio-Canada investigative reporters in the fall of 2009, gave an extended sermon blaming the system for the illegal activities of dozens of people, including himself.
?I was no angel,? Mr. Zambito said. ?I rigged contracts, I financed political parties, I corrupted bureaucrats but the system was constructed such that you had no choice. If you wanted to work in those days, you had to go along.?
Testimony at the Charbonneau commission into corruption cannot be used in criminal trials. Mr. Zambito is facing fraud and collusion charges related to the construction of a water treatment plant in the Montreal bedroom community of Boisbriand.
The system as described by Mr. Zambito has so far mainly touched Montreal City Hall and the Quebec Liberal Party. However, Mr. Zambito described making smaller illicit donations to the Parti Qu?b?cois and the Action d?mocratique du Qu?bec, often through a system involving employees, friends and family who would write cheques in return for cash from Mr. Zambito.
In the decade starting in 2001, Mr. Zambito donated $25,370 in legitimate donations to all three parties. Three times that amount was funnelled through strawmen, including his secretary, his ex-wife and his father.
?The political financing system is sick, it?s no fault of these (people). The system is sick and corrupt,? Mr. Zambito said.
Mr. Zambito was to continue testifying Monday afternoon on his work with the Ministry of Transport.
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