Former Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt is not done with justice: a week after his acquittal by the Paris Criminal Court, the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) announced, Wednesday January 24, that he was appealing of this decision.

The former minister was suspected of "favoritism" in the award of the public water contract in 2009, when he was mayor of Annonay (Ardèche), for the benefit of the water supply and treatment group Saur .

The court rejected this accusation, brought by the PNF, affirming that Olivier Dussopt had not provided "any privileged information" to Saur during a call for tenders in his municipality.

The court also rejected the PNF's accusation that Olivier Dussopt had, following a meeting with Olivier Brousse, the former general director of Saur (Urban and Rural Development Company), sought to modify the evaluation criteria for this call for tenders, relating to a market worth 5.6 million euros.

This is in order to reduce the importance given to price to favor Saur, which has held a public service delegation to manage the municipality's water since 1994 but is more expensive than competing companies.

The evaluation criteria for the call for tenders were “in accordance with the public procurement code”, the court ruled.

“Questions which deserve to be submitted to the examination of the court of appeal”

The financial public prosecutor, Jean-François Bohnert, contests the court's decision, considering that it "raises questions of law with regard to the offense of favoritism, which deserve to be submitted to the examination of the court of call".

During Olivier Dussopt's trial in November, the PNF requested a ten-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of 15,000 euros.

Ignoring this, the court acquitted the former minister but also the two other defendants: Olivier Brousse, tried for complicity in favoritism, and Saur itself, tried for concealment of this offense.

Contacted by AFP, Olivier Dussopt affirmed that he "will once again present his complete explanations to the court of appeal to convince it in turn and so that the acquittal and his innocence are confirmed."

“The court pronounced a decision based on precise and detailed reasoning. It judged that all these acts, which concern an old public procurement procedure from 2009, are in conformity with the law,” underlined the former minister .

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 seized the minutes of a meeting held at the end of July 2009 between Olivier Dussopt and Olivier Brousse.

Suspicious dates and gifts

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.

It was on the basis of these documents that the PNF 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.

PRESS RELEASE |

Reaction of Transparency international France to the acquittal of Olivier Dussopt for the offense of favoritism.#Justice #Dussopt


➡️https://t.co/ZMNNnOuhq3

— Transparency France (@TI_France) January 17, 2024

"The investigation and the debates made it possible (...) to highlight the risks linked to too direct and too informal contacts between the contracting authority and the companies", estimated the NGO Transparency France after the court decision .

"By accepting meetings without the presence of his administration, by later accepting gifts from a company with which his municipality was contractually linked, the former mayor of Annonay placed himself in an area with risk which fully justified the judicial investigations", estimated the anti-corruption association.

The date of Olivier Dussopt's future trial is not yet known.

With AFP

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