Why investigators did not pursue ‘red flag’ in corruption scandal

Investigators have partly blamed being time-poor and under-resourced for not pursuing a probe into a transport department official who allegedly turned out to be the mastermind behind a multimillion-dollar kickback scheme, an anti-corruption inquiry has heard.

Appearing before the inquiry into department staff pocketing kickbacks from road contractors, Transport for NSW investigations officer David Faust was questioned on Thursday about an anonymous complaint he was asked to examine in July 2023 about official Ibrahim Helmy.

Helmy is accused of being the mastermind behind corrupt relationships with nine companies that were paid at least $343 million in contracts by the government agency in return for paying bribes to him and other officials.

The inquiry by the Independent Commission Against Corruption has heard that Transport for NSW staffer Adele Graham decided in July 2023 to report her concerns about Helmy favouring two Grafton road contracting companies. She made her complaint anonymously to the agency’s Speak Up hotline.

Graham has previously told the inquiry that she had expected the names on the emails to later prompt the agency’s fraud and investigation unit to contact her, but that did not happen.

Faust said he was asked by senior investigations manager Paul Grech to look at the complaint in July 2023, and decided that it was worth advancing an assessment of it.

He told the inquiry he had an idea that the complainant was Graham but did not attempt to contact her because she had expressed a desire to remain anonymous, and he did not want to breach that request.

However, he said he reviewed the documents that were made as part of the complaint, spoke to Helmy’s supervisor, Tahira Basir, and received additional information from her.

A month after the complaint, Faust completed a report that found there was insufficient evidence to support the complaint about Helmy’s conduct, and recommended no further action be taken and the matter closed.

His report dated August 28, 2023, concluded that the alleged conduct of Helmy involving tenders for two panels “does not indicate corrupt conduct and is therefore not required to be reported to the ICAC”. Grech reviewed the assessment report and signed off on it.

Under heavy questioning on Thursday, Faust said the circumstance he faced at the time meant that thoroughness in delving into the complaint was not available to him.

“We’re time-poor [and] were under-resourced,” he said. “So we were looking at these at face value. We were reviewing them, re-reading and then providing feedback.”

With hindsight, Faust conceded that he would consider the assessment of the complaint to be inadequate, but he maintained that it was adequate under the circumstances at the time.

“If I’d [been] given time and resources, I could have gone further,” he said.

Faust, who has about 15 years’ experience conducting fraud and corruption investigations, has been working at Transport for NSW since November 2021.

Later on Thursday, ICAC counsel assisting Rob Ranken, SC, also put the proposition to Grech that Graham was the only person raising a red flag about Helmy, yet no one sought to clarify with her what her complaint might be.

In response, Grech said: “We were blinded in a way by the response of Ms Basir and, because of the workload, we relied too much on that response.”

Grech also agreed that in hindsight the investigators should have spoken to Graham about her complaint.

When her complaint was made in 2023, the agency’s fraud and corruption unit had a total of 13 investigators. Like other parts of Transport for NSW, the fraud and corruption unit is now operating in what was described as caretaker mode due to an agency-wide restructure, which will result in a total of 1300 job losses.

The ICAC investigation into the kickback scandal was sparked by a tip-off from an external source, and not from anyone within Transport for NSW.

Helmy, 38, is alleged to have pocketed $11.5 million in kickbacks – including bundles of cash and gold bullion – from the contractors, in return for them gaining work at inflated prices. At least four other Transport for NSW officials are alleged to have played some role in the kickback deals.

The public inquiry into the kickbacks is part of an ICAC investigation known as Operation Wyvern, the fourth into corruption in procurement processes at Transport for NSW since 2019. Hearings will continue next Tuesday.

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