MONTREAL ­— A series of ingrained, systemic problems made it possible for corruption to take root and thrive in Montreal and Laval, the Charbonneau Commission heard on Tuesday, and it will take major changes to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Jacques Bergeron, who has served as the city of Montreal’s auditor general since 2012, described the corruption at city hall in the 2000s as a “perfect storm,” noting that even if his predecessors had been looking for suspicious patterns, it’s unlikely they would have found any. The system allegedly used by construction bosses and engineering firms to get around the rules and increase their profit margins were too highly integrated, Bergeron testified.

“Internally, you had collusion,” he said. “You had different (public servants) that were controlling the cycle ... the cost estimates, the inspection of work sites, the extras (charged by the companies), the reports submitted to elected officials.”

Meanwhile, Bergeron explained, the private firms were sharing the pie on city contracts, but rotating the winners in order to mimic a fair, competitive environment.

“When you counted, it all balanced out. You had the right documents, the right authorizations,” he summarized. “If these allegations are founded, then we can speak of a perfect storm ... it was a perfect system.”

If the sheer magnitude of the schemes made them harder to detect, it also meant that it was “practically impossible that people at the city didn’t see” what was going on, Bergeron said.

Nobody said anything, however, likely out of fear of reprisals. In order to prevent a similar situation in the future, the witness said, his office needs the power to sanction city employees and elected officials who do not hand over documents as requested. The province must also adopt new legislation that would provide blanket protections for whistleblowers, Bergeron added, and the city must provide better education for municipal employees to sensitize them to the types of schemes they may encounter in the construction industry.

In the afternoon, Bergeron was replaced on the stand by Laval’s current city manager, Serge Lamontagne, who told a similar tale of systemic failures and concentrations of power that allowed former mayor Gilles Vaillancourt to rule over the municipality like a modern-day fiefdom. According to Lamontagne, the municipal charter is structured in such a way that Laval’s five-member executive committee controls both “the adoption of the rules and ... the application of those rules.” The mayor names the members of the committee, Lamontagne testified, meaning he could theoretically concentrate an enormous amount of power in his office. And unlike other municipal charters in Quebec, Laval’s doesn’t include any mention of mayoral accountability.

Vaillancourt, who served as Laval’s mayor for 23 years, was arrested by the provincial anti-corruption unit in 2013 and is facing charges of gangsterism, fraud and breach of trust in connection with an alleged system of corruption. He has maintained his innocence.

Within the next year, Lamontagne told the inquiry, Laval will begin altering its charter to redistribute power in a more equitable manner. There are now more competitors bidding on contracts in the city, the cost of public works projects is dropping, and more than 20 new municipal engineers have been hired since last year, he added — all signs that things are starting to change for the better.

The Charbonneau Commission is in the midst of a final, consultative phase of its hearings. The testimony heard over the coming weeks is expected to inform Justice Charbonneau’s final recommendations, due to be published in April.

mmuise@montrealgazette.com

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