The Independent Commission Against Corruption has expanded its probe into allegedly corrupt procurement practices at Transport for NSW,

[Greg Sutherland]

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/work-life-not-fair-sacked-transport-official-s-whatsapp-messages-reveal-motivation-20251119-p5ngrn.html

The Independent Commission Against Corruption has expanded its probe into allegedly corrupt procurement practices at Transport for NSW, announcing that a public inquiry that was meant to finish on Friday will instead be extended to investigate other procurement practices at the agency stretching back more than a decade.

For more than 50 days, the ICAC has been holding a public inquiry into procurement processes at the agency since 2019, and for 19 days it has grilled Ibrahim Helmy, a former Transport official accused of being the mastermind behind corrupt relationships with nine contractors, in which he allegedly pocketed $11.5 million in kickbacks.

Ibrahim Helmy and his lawyer leave the ICAC premises on Friday.Credit: Oscar Colman

But on Friday, Chief Commissioner John Hatzistergos announced the anti-corruption body had expanded the scope of its investigation to also investigate Transport staff and others who may have engaged in conduct that “impaired, or could have impaired public confidence in public administration by dishonestly benefiting from the payment or application of public funds for private advantage,” as far back as 2014.

The extension of the inquiry came as Helmy admitted he had lied to the commission, and was presented with a series of WhatsApp messages he had sent to a young woman he knew from the online game League of Legends which showed Helmy discussing his realisation that “things at work and life are not fair” and that he had to “take [his] right some other ways”.

ICAC counsel assisting Rob Ranken, SC, said Helmy had lied at least nine times during a compulsory examination with the commission last year.

In Helmy’s earlier examination, the sacked Transport official said he had not received cash from any other contractor for the agency.

“That was not correct,” Ranken said.

“Yes,” Helmy replied.

Ranken: “You knew it was not correct when you made it.”

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Helmy: “I think so.”

Ranken: “It was a lie.”

Helmy: “Sure.”

Lying to the ICAC is an offence, punishable by up to six months imprisonment or a fine of $2000.

Messages to gamer friend reveal realisation

In his final moments of questioning Helmy, Ranken asked the 38-year-old about a series of messages he had sent to an online acquaintance he had met on the online game League of Legends, which Ranken suggested “led to [Helmy] embarking upon those corrupt arrangements”.

“I realised that things at work and life are not fair and instead of being angry over it, I’m gonna take my right some other ways,” he wrote in 2019.

“Like no one is gonna fight for you. I like things to be fair but no one actually is fair! That’s why I wana [sic] help you. They just talk about being fair but no action.

“And even now, so many old dumb people do nothing alll [sic] day. Some guy just comes to work and plays some card games on his iPad. Then plays words with friends then watches YouTube.

“And the boss thinks that he’s the most knowledgeable guy in the whole world! They’re both dumber than each other lol. No one likes working with dumb people, but when you are, you have to take advantage of it and make it in your favour.

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“Okay I wrote too much hahahah. That’s just a lil [sic] of what I have to say. I’m sure it doesn’t justify it though lol.”

Ranken said: “These are communications you’re having with a member of the public, someone you’d never met in person, and you didn’t seem at all [concerned about talking about] what I suggest to you is serious corrupt conduct.”

“I don’t think I was saying much here,” Helmy said. “I don’t know.”

The public inquiry will return to the commission on the week commencing December 8.

[Matthew Geier]

Interestingly, this has had a direct effect on the work of my wife - she used one of the companies named, they were on the government contract list, and the people they provided were good and did their jobs well.  After being named in ICAC, the company basically folded as they got blacklisted. No one wants to be seen to be dealing with a company that got named for corruption. The company was shuttered and all its workers lost their jobs.

After some searching, she found another company on the approved list that had good recommendations. She called them, and found they had taken on a number of workers from closed company - as they were getting more work now that one of their competitors had folded - they took on some of the workers from that company. So my wife arranged with them to get the same people she used to use that she was happy with, but the invoices go to a different company.

So at least some of the workers from the failed, corrupt company did quickly get other jobs.

It's not just the management that lose when they get caught corrupt dealing, when it destroys the company, everyone in that company pays due to loss of income, not just the corrupt bosses.

And in some cases, the bosses were pressured into the kickbacks, basically being told by the corrupt official, if you don't 'grease the palm', I won't give you any work, and then where will your company be ?. Dammed if you do, dammed if you don't.

My lot is in the process of buying a few million in computers for 'AI' work. The process is long and time-consuming, but this is why every little detail is on the table and examined, not just by technical, but legal as well. It's incredibly time-consuming. But it's all part of the process to detect and prevent any sort of corrupt behaviour sneaking in.

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[TP]

The bloke named in this inquiry was responsible for road projects. Some of these government contracts are so big that some public servants with less moral fibre can't resist the temptation of the amount of money rolling past their eyes. Plus, many of them, not having worked in the private sector, have no idea how much jobs are actually worth. As a contractor for the former rail authority myself, I couldn't believe the amounts put forward for jobs. Of course, then you have the choice of telling them that the job's not worth that much, or you think of the bills and mortgages at home and just shut up. If people only knew where their taxes go. And now we're in a phase where the size of bureacracies is growing.

Tony P