Opening of the trial for suspicion of favoritism on a waste contract in the Var

The trial of seven people, including a former LR vice-president of the Varet departmental council, ex-deputy mayor of Toulon, for suspicion of favoritism and illegal taking of interest in the award of an incinerator contract of some 500 million euros, opened on Monday in Marseille.

The former elected Jean-Guy Di Giorgio chaired the Intermunicipal Syndicate of transport and waste treatment of the Toulon area (Sittomat), during the renewal in 2012 of the public service delegation for the operation of the incinerator of the Toulon conurbation, then owned by the Suez group.

Jean-Guy Di Giorgio is being prosecuted alongside the former directors and technical director of Sittomat and three managers from the companies Pizzorno Environnement, Idex Environnement and the Zephire group, set up by these two manufacturers for this market.

They are accused of acts of favouritism, illegal taking of interests and abuse of corporate assets, or their concealment.

A seventh defendant, presented as close to the former director of the Sittomat, is being prosecuted for concealment of favoritism, for having benefited from an architectural subcontracting contract.

A contract worth 500 million euros

The case had been triggered by anonymous information sent to the Toulon prosecutor's office, information which had announced, even before the results of the call for tenders in October 2012, the award of this contract to Zéphire, a new player in the sector.

The amount of the contract was 470 million euros over eighteen years.

But this trial also covers other contracts of lesser amounts, all in the waste sector, for a total of around 500 million.

The Sittomat brings together the urban community of Toulon-Provence-Mediterranean as well as two communities of municipalities, South Sainte-Baume and Vallée du Gapeau, i.e. 26 municipalities and more than 500,000 inhabitants.

In particular, the defendants are accused of the meetings prior to the award of the contract, with invitations to the restaurant, and the "

" by one of the companies of the football club of which the director of the Sittomat was president.

“

”, whether at the Departmental Council or at the town hall of Toulon, assured Mr. Di Giorgio on Monday during the presentation of the file.

Before the evocation of the facts, the defense pleaded at length for a referral of the case to the instruction, denouncing numerous irregularities in the referral order, in particular on the durations and qualifications of the offenses retained.

The tribunal appended its decision on this point to its judgment on the merits.

Several companies, including Suez, are civil parties, and have announced their intention to seek some 50 million euros in damages.

Hearings are scheduled until March 31.