A key construction industry businessman has admitted that a range of companies, including his own, colluded on public sector contracts in Montreal.
On Thursday, Lino Zambito, a former vice-president of Infrabec Construction acknowledged before the Charbonneau Commission examining corruption in Quebec’s construction industry that around 10 companies control bids for contracts in an arrangement in which each of the companies in question takes turns to win work under a system of rotation. Infrabec obtained at least $68.7 million in public works contracts from Montreal and Laval over a five-year period from 2006 to 2011.
In his testimony, Zambito says he paid a 2.5 per cent cut of the value of municipal contracts which his firm was awarded to top figures in the Rizzuto family, a crime syndicate based in Montreal.
Based on the figures provided, Zambito, who is currently facing charges in connection with a municipal contract for a $28 million water-purification plant in Boisbriand, handed over $1.4 million in bribes between 2006 and 2009, according to a report the Montreal Gazette.
The latest revelation follows allegations from former Montreal mayoral candidate Benoit Labonté that companies were instructed to pay a three per cent cut of contracts for public works they won within the city to the chief fundraiser in Mayor Gérald Trenbkat’s party during the 2009 municipal election campaign.
The latest developments follow the resumption of the Charbonneau Commission on September 18 after a three-month break during which investigators examined the books of a number of municipalities within the province.
Already, the Commission has heard testimony that the building and construction industry in the province is ruled by elements of the Mafia.
