At the trial for favouritism and corruption of Nicolas Best, former director of the Annecy and Nîmes hospitals, the court examined his murky links with Bouygues and some of its employees.
A trial concerning public construction contracts worth more than 35 million euros excluding tax, as well as the sale of land in 2016-2018 in Annecy, acts which, according to the prosecution, fraudulently benefited Bouygues, is first and foremost made up of boring technical debates on the law governing the award of contracts and its application.
This is what happened this Wednesday at the Paris court, on the second day of the trial of Nicolas Best, 58 years old. But not only that, because the hearing then addressed more trivial facts. The former head of CHANGE (Annecy and Saint-Julien hospitals) then of the Nîmes University Hospital, between 2018 and 2023 (removed from his duties by the Elysée), was questioned on elements related to his personal life.
The court first asked him why, during the entire procedure that led to Annecy awarding the contract for a new aftercare building to Bouygues, he had communicated information deemed sensitive by text message to an architect linked to the construction giant, accompanied by ambiguous terms. “Friendships, loves, kisses”wrote the director, sending his architect friend the timetable for the procedure.
When the latter asked him about the jury’s result that same day, he replied: “I’ll tell you… tomorrow evening.” In court, Nicolas Best described these exchanges as “mismanagement,” but assured that it had not affected Bouygues’ choice. The court did not question him about the exact nature of his relations, a precaution that the police clearly did not have during the investigation, since the defendant complained to them of “homophobia.” The former director was also questioned about even more concrete facts: invitations by Bouygues to restaurants or cultural shows on about ten occasions, in the middle of the tender review period.
Opéra, cocktails…
The director even asked Bouygues for, and obtained, an annual subscription to piano recitals, he went to the Lyon opera, to cocktail parties, and to dinners. “I didn’t realize what I was doing was wrong. It was clumsy but it’s not illegal.”the director said.
This is not the opinion of the national financial prosecutor’s office, which is prosecuting him for corruption in connection with these gifts, which totalled a relatively small amount, around 1,500-1,700 euros over several years, but which are by nature criminal, according to the prosecution. The police tried to find out whether he had received other advantages, but the investigations were negative.
The heaviest part for the prosecution, however, lies in the conditions in which Bouygues obtained the contract during a strange jury chaired in 2016 by Nicolas Best. While five criteria had been notified to the five competing groups of companies, with weighting rates (cost, functionality, architecture, technical, environment and deadlines), nothing remained in the final decision to award the contract to Bouygues.
The company won the contract without any reference to these elements and without any quantification by criterion. The former director assured that it was legal but the prosecutor François-Xavier Dulin contradicted him by reading him the texts which stipulate that if weighted criteria are set, one must respond at the end of the procedure with a table of scores. The court was to continue in the evening the examination of other construction contracts and contracts for assistance to project management awarded under conditions suggesting favouritism to a company, Mupi, also on trial. Bouygues escaped trial by negotiating with the prosecution the payment of a fine of more than nine million euros. A subordinate of Nicolas Best also pleaded guilty and is not present at the hearing.
The prosecution will present its submissions on Monday before the defense’s arguments, with the judgment then to be deliberated.
