PIERREFONDS-ROXBORO – In the West Island borough of Montreal one company, RCI, has held all of the garbage collection contracts since 2005, according to a new report from Montreal’s auditor general.
“We have found some potential risk of collusion,” said Jacques Bergeron, the city’s auditor general. “The same entrepreneur is always present at the borough.”
Pierrefonds-Roxboro isn’t alone. According to the AG’s report, eight other boroughs have exactly the same scenario, including Anjou, Lachine, LaSalle, Montreal-Nord, NDG, Outremont, St. Laurent and St. Leonard.
According to a map in the report, the nine boroughs appear to be split like territories among four companies: RCI (Pierrefonds-Roxboro and NDG), Bergeron (Anjou, Lachine, LaSalle, St. Leonard), F.A. (Montreal-Nord, St. Laurent) and Matrec (Outremont).
In Pierrefonds-Roxboro alone, the garbage collection contract is worth about $20 million over the period between 2005 and 2013.
While neither RCI nor the borough of Pierrefonds-Roxboro returned calls seeking comment, the City of Montreal took the unusual step of responding to the AG’s findings immediately after its press conference from the same room of the same building.
“Are we concerned about it? Yes we are concerned. Now, does it say that there’s been collusion? We don’t know,” said Pierre Desrochers, president of the Executive Committee. “The file has been transferred to the inspector general, he’ll be looking into it.”
The auditor general recommended the findings be turned over to UPAC, the provincial anti-corruption squad.
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