Illegal party donations detailed by Roche Engineering V.P.

Today at the Charbonneau Commission, Andr Ct, aformer vice president of Roche Engineering, explained how the firm earmarked a yearly sumfor political donations.

Ct explained that from 2006 to 2009, financing for the Quebec Liberals increased.

He said this was during a time when there was "a lot of money invested in infrastructure."

According to Ct, funding practices Roche would have been the same with any party.

"I think it's a question of the party in power," he said.

Ct told the Charbonneau commission that it was a vice president with the firm, France Michaud, and the president Mario Martel who established the annual budget for financing political parties.

Ct said Michaud met with former Liberal MNAViolette Trpanier and the PQs Ginette Boivin to agree on a figure for the annual donation.

He said the firm'sseven vice presidents agreed to put $10,000 of their own salaries towards party donations.

Faced with the growing increase in requests from parties in2008-2009, Ct himself approached three or four shareholders to offer them bonuses for funding political parties.

Ct also spoke about false invoices created by the firm.

He said the false invoices were produced at the request of Martel and Michaud.

Ct said he is still "surprised" the chief electoral officer never addressed Roches party financing, considering it was common knowledge among Quebec politicians.

He said that he was uncomfortable with the companys practices.

"All political parties know that the employees are not paying their own money out of pocket," said Ct.

According to Ct, about 90 per cent of donations made by Roche employees were reimbursed, which is illegal.