‘I was suspicious’: Whistleblower recalls dealings with fugitive Transport manager

A woman who blew the whistle on allegedly corrupt dealings at Transport for NSW has told a public inquiry that a former manager at the centre of the scandal applied undue pressure on her in an attempt to get her to drop concerns that several companies were unsuitable for carrying out work for the agency.

Adele Graham, who worked at Transport for NSW for three years until February, told an anti-corruption inquiry that red flags were first raised in her mind when she told procurement manager Ibraham Helmy that two Grafton companies – Protection Barriers and JC Safety – appeared to be related entities.

That was unacceptable for government tenders because it was anticompetitive, she said.

After she determined the two companies were non-compliant, she said Helmy lobbied other managers, and she was issued an instruction to allow them to resubmit applications to be on a panel to bid for work.

“I was suspicious of his activity by this stage because I could tell he wasn’t telling the truth,” she recalled on Wednesday.

“I believe that he was communicating with the contractors behind my back. I believe that he chose four contractors [in order] ... to hide the fact that he was just wanting to get Protection Barriers and JC [Safety] on the panel.”

The Independent Commission Against Corruption has previously heard that Protection Barriers was awarded about $100 million of work between 2020 and 2024 as a result of allegedly corrupt arrangements with Helmy.

Helmy, 38, is accused of pocketing $11.5 million in kickbacks – including bundles of cash, gold bullion and cryptocurrency – over 15 years from nine contractors, including Protection Barriers, in return for them being awarded work. He failed to appear before the ICAC in May and, since then, has been on the run from police.

Graham told the inquiry that she formed a view in February or March 2023 that Helmy was favouring Protection Barriers and JC Safety, and was pushing for them to be included on the safety barriers panel.

During online meetings between the pair in 2023, Graham said Helmy “pressured me” and spruiked Protection Barriers as a significant and “good contractor” that should be included on the panel.

“At one stage I said to him, ‘get back – you’re too close’,” she told the inquiry.

“That’s not a common thing I would say to anyone, but he was trying to exert influence over what I was doing.”

Graham said Helmy told her that the two companies were not related because it was an “ex-husband and wife arrangement” whereby they had gone their different ways and started two separate companies. The couple were called before the inquiry last month and remain married.

Months later in 2023, she said she raised concerns with a manager that the companies’ documents were “so poor” that they should not be included on the panel, telling him that she believed Helmy was allowing them to have undue favouritism.

Graham, who was a safety quality and environment officer, was part of a separate unit from Transport for NSW’s procurement division which Helmy worked for. Her role was to ensure contractors met their statutory obligations and were capable of carrying out work for the agency.

When she started in 2022, she said she entered an environment where there was a “tick and flick” culture within her part of the transport agency, which was evident in the fact she could not find records for companies which were on panels from which they could tender for road work.

“When I started to review documents, it was clear that these companies had never been reviewed previously,” she said.

The ICAC is investigating allegations Helmy was the mastermind behind corrupt relationships with nine companies that were paid at least $343 million in contracts by Transport for NSW.

The hearing continues.

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