Nicolas Best trial: former director of Nîmes hospital embarrassed in court by his text messages and dinners in town

Nicolas Best. Midi Libre – MiKAEL ANISSET

Au procès pour favoritisme et corruption de Nicolas Best, ex-directeur des hôpitaux d’Annecy et Nîmes, le tribunal a examiné ses liens troubles avec Bouygues et certains de ses employés.

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 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. But not only that, because the hearing then moved on to more trivial facts. The former head of CHANGE (Annecy and Saint-Julien hospitals) and 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 the awarding of the contract for a new post-acute care building to Bouygues in Annecy, he had communicated information deemed sensitive by text message to an architect linked to the construction giant, accompanied by ambiguous terms. “Amitiés, amours, bises”, wrote the director, sending his architect friend the timetable for the procedure.

When asked about the jury's results that same day, he replied: “I'll tell you… tomorrow night”. In court, Nicolas Best described these exchanges as “mismanagement”, but assured that it had not affected the choice of Bouygues. The court did not question him on the exact nature of his relationship, a warning 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 period of examination of calls for tenders.

Opera, cocktails…

The director even requested from Bouygues, and obtained, an annual subscription to piano recitals, he went to the Lyon opera, to cocktails, dinners. “I was not aware that what I was doing was wrong. “It's a mistake 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, of a relatively small total amount, around 1,500-1,700 euros over several years, but 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 thing 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, technique, 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 with project management awarded under conditions suggesting favouritism to a company, Mupi, also on trial. Bouygues avoided 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 pleadings, with the judgment then to be deliberated.

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