Saint-Jerome has hired a well-known anti-corruption crusader to investigate municipal contracts.
Jacques Duchesneau, the former Montreal police chief, Coalition Avenir Quebec MNA, and one-time head of an anti-collusion unit at the Ministry of Transportation, was hired Monday for two jobs.
His task is to create a Bureau of professional and administrative ethics (BIPA) for the city of St. Jerome, as well as being deputy director of the Saint-Jerome police force.
"We're going to start looking at the past and make sure that the present is fine and we're also trying to build a new generation of people who will be saying no to corruption," said Duchesneau.
Testimony that residents of Saint-Jerome were swindled came out recently during a hearing regarding the construction industry.
"An engineer testified before his [professional order] saying that there was a structured group of people who were doing corruption in Saint-Jerome and it lasted eight years," said Duchesneau.
That engineer, Erik Frigon, said former mayor Marc Gascon was colluding with several firms to unfairly award contracts.
Current mayor Stephane Maher said that revelation was the impetus for the new anti-corruption squad.
"We are very happy to have a deal with Mr. Duchesneau and this creation of this new task force it's a very good news for the citizens of Saint-Jerome," said Maher.
He expects the unit will more than pay for itself.
"We think we could find $10 or 15 million. That's a lot of money," said Maher.
Duchesneau said it will be a concrete step toward eliminating collusion and ensuring fair play, and include more than just police officers.
"Engineers, lawyers, accountants, people that can look at a contract and can see what are the loopholes and together were going to find solutions," said Duchesneau.
He expects to hire up to ten people in the coming weeks, then begin searching through existing contracts to ensure they were fairly awarded.
