Fire Brigades managers corrupt: watchdog

Two NSW Fire Brigades managers engaged in corrupt conduct by pursuing dishonest schemes that enabled them to receive $2.4 million in payments, the Independent Commission Against Corruption has found.

Under the schemes, which ran between 2005 and 2007, companies controlled by Christian Sanhueza received $6.07 million from the NSW Fire Brigades for upgrades, repairs and maintenance of fire stations.

After paying subcontractors, Mr Sanhueza received at least $1.4 million and his associate, Clive Taylor $1.01 million, ICAC found.

As a result of its inquiry, ICAC said it had found "systemic weakness" in the NSW Fire Brigades and made 14 "corruption prevention recommendations" to minimise or prevent similar corrupt conduct and improper work practices from recurring.

Earlier, ICAC referred the receipt of the corrupt proceeds to the NSW Crime Commission, which obtained restraining orders against Mr Sanhueza and Mr Taylor.

Subsequently, the Supreme Court has "made a proceeds assessment order" against Mr Sanhueza for $950,000 and has sought to forfeit assets of Mr Taylor - a farm at Merriwa, two flat-screen television sets and a laptop computer, ICAC said.

The NSW Fire Brigades had no effective method of costing a capital works project, ICAC noted in its report, released earlier today.

"The budget allocation process offered the corrupt project managers their opportunity," ICAC said.

Reports ICAC also made corruption findings against Fire Brigades contractor Rasem Guirguis, who gave both men gifts of televisions and laptop computers for awarding him work.

Another man, Soliman Hanna, was found to have acted corruptly by giving Mr Sanhueza and Mr Taylor $1000 each for awarding him work.

Patricia Xuereb, another Fire Brigades employee, was found to have improperly provided confidential information to Mr Sanhueza.

Related:

RailCorp corruption 'extraordinary'
The role of the NSW Minister for Transport, and the RailCorp CEO and board, must be reviewed to "better ensure financially responsible management that would limit the opportunity for corruption", says a damning report released today by the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

Rail rorts: ICAC recommends charges
The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has found another four RailCorp employees received large cash payments for awarding work to favoured contractors

Something is rotten in the state of NSW
IN 1998 the lid was lifted on the corrupt world of NSW railways, revealing that supplying prostitutes could win you a contract, fake medical certificates signed by a dead doctor would get you a day off work, and you could claim overtime while playing golf.

Ex-police media director guilty of perjury

Prosecutors have dropped a number of charges against former Victoria Police media director Stephen Linnell on an undertaking that he will plead guilty to perjury.

Linnell's lawyer told the Melbourne Magistrates Court, his client would plead guilty to three charges of perjury and three summary counts of breaching confidentiality.

Thirteen related charges against him have been dropped.

The charges relate to Office of Police Integrity (OPI) hearings into whether senior police figures were part of a chain of leaks that derailed a murder investigation.

The court heard Linnell was prepared to give an undertaking to give evidence against his co-accused, former assistant commissioner Noel Ashby.

He is facing 29 charges.

He will also give evidence against and Police Association Secretary Paul Mullett, who has been charged with five offences.

Mullett and Ashby will face a committal hearing next May.

Linnell will return to court to enter his plea in February.

Related:

Nixon quits as police chief
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon has announced she is resigning from the top job.

Sacked Victorian police squad lawless
THE police corruption watchdog claims some members of the former armed offenders squad took the law into their own hands.

Lives put at risk by corrupt police
LIVES are being put at risk by "festering" cells of corrupt police leaking information on confidential investigations to criminals, a police corruption watchdog has warned.

Charge gangland police suspect: OPI
VICTORIA'S police watchdog has recommended criminal charges against Paul Dale, a former policeman linked to a double underworld murder, along with several other police.

One OPI officer sacked, another suspended
Some people may form the view that it is tit for tat between the OPI and some opposition (political or other like Police Association or affiliates?) down in Victoria (See Links). Perhaps the expense claims are a way to weaken previous statements made by the OPI in relation to allegation against police?

Police-crime links linger
A SMALL number of Victorian police are maintaining improper links with organised crime figures, the state's police corruption watchdog says.

Police watchdog 'leaks like a sieve'
The Victoria Police watchdog leaks like a sieve, according to former assistant commissioner Noel Ashby, who could face criminal charges following an Office of Police Integrity (OPI) inquiry.

Police criticised as OPI hearing wraps up
The head of an Office of Police Integrity (OPI) inquiry is expected to call for stronger ethical guidelines within Victoria Police when he tables his report in Parliament.

Four more complaints against Stewart

Four more allegations against sacked New South Wales frontbencher Tony Stewart have emerged in the past four days.

A former Bankstown area commander, Superintendent Dave Darcy, has complained that the dumped minister threatened to name him in Parliament last year if he charged an associate and Labor donor over the operations of a security firm.

Yesterday, Greens MP Lee Rhiannon also said she had complaints about Mr Stewart from two former detective sergeants, who said the Bankstown MP threatened them to stop investigating certain constituents in 1995 and 1996.

The allegations were referred to the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

Yesterday afternoon, Ms Rhiannon said she had received [an] allegation of intimidating behaviour, this time from another female former public servant.

The MP said the speech writer told her she felt intimidated by comments Mr Stewart made to her about material she had prepared eight years ago.

The woman neither wanted to elaborate on her claims nor identify herself to the media.

Related:

Minister dumped for 'abusing staffer'
Suspended New South Wales minister Tony Stewart will be returned to the backbenches for inappropriate behaviour.

Something is rotten in the state of NSW

IN 1998 the lid was lifted on the corrupt world of NSW railways, revealing that supplying prostitutes could win you a contract, fake medical certificates signed by a dead doctor would get you a day off work, and you could claim overtime while playing golf.

Ten years later it seems little has changed in RailCorp and the stench of corruption is slowly engulfing the NSW public sector.

In past 12 months the Independent Commission Against Corruption has held inquiries into three State Government agencies - the Roads and Traffic Authority, RailCorp and the Department of Housing; the NSW Fire Brigades has joined the list this week.

The commission has begun investigating claims that the former brigade project managers Christian Sanhueza and Clive Taylor awarded $6 million in contracts between 2005 and 2007, using fake tenders to give contracts to shelf companies controlled by Mr Sanhueza.

Contracts were then sub-contracted to cheaper building firms, allegedly netting the pair almost $2.5 million.

Ken Phillips, the director of the work reform unit at the Institute of Public Affairs, said the NSW public service was "rotten to the core".

"The governments in Victoria, South Australia and Queensland are pretty clean governments but NSW has never got over the rum rebellion," Mr Phillips said.

"NSW is very tribal and you have a mates culture in NSW that does not belong in any other state, which leads to an acceptance of sanctified corruption."

The fire brigade allegations are the latest to tarnish the public service and follow ICAC uncovering $22 million in fraudulent RailCorp contracts being awarded, including $3 million in kickbacks to rail staff, in one of the biggest investigations in the commission's history.

The inquiry, the seventh corruption investigation of the NSW railways since 1992, also revealed a welding manager defrauded RailCorp of $4.28 million and a contracts officer helped herself to $650,000. They were among eight people recommended for prosecution.

RailCorp was also under the corruption spotlight last year when it was discovered that an engineer, Said Marcos, awarded air-conditioning contracts to his mates, landing himself at least $710,000. But the problems are not confined to the railways.

In January this year, the commission investigated a state housing official, Douglas Norris, who took bribes to let people jump the public housing waiting list.

He also allowed homes to be used by drug dealers. It emerged that Mr Norris operated a bribes-for-accommodation scheme with alleged drug dealers and other housing tenants who acted as middlemen. Tenants paid between $500 and $700 for a bedsit or between $1500 and $1700 for a two- or three-bedroom flat.

And last year a Roads and Traffic Authority registry manager, Paul McPherson, was investigated by the commission after he provided at least 100 motorists the answers to their L-plate licence tests and gave advance warning of the route of their driving tests. False email records were also created to allow migrant New Zealanders to obtain NSW drivers' licences as part of the scam.

At least 12 public servants or contractors are facing criminal charges for their roles in various corrupt activities, and so widespread is the problem in RailCorp that the massive bureaucracy is struggling to implement the internal reforms required to fix its problems.

In a parliamentary inquiry into ICAC last month, the commissioner, Jerrold Cripps, said RailCorp had "flooded" the commission with work yet the Government was often extremely slow or had failed to implement the recommendations handed down by the commission.

"The perception is that we keep exposing it and nothing happens," Mr Cripps told the inquiry.

Petroulias jailed for two years

Nicholas Petroulias accepted $41,000 in return for providing confidential ATO information.

Former assistant tax commissioner Nicholas Petroulias will spend at least two years in jail for corrupt conduct and unauthorised publication of documents, a NSW Supreme Court judge has ruled.

In December, a jury found Petroulias guilty of two offences - agreeing to receive money on an understanding that his role at the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) would be affected, and publishing documents without authorisation.

In passing sentence today, Justice Peter Johnson said Petroulias acted with "impropriety and deceit" while working in a position of trust.

"I'm satisfied that these are very close to the worst cases of crime of this type," Justice Johnson said.

Between 1997 and 1999, for the latter part of which period Petroulias was assistant tax commissioner, he accepted $41,000 in return for providing confidential ATO information.

Justice Johnson said that information was used by Petroulias and his private business partners to benefit their business.

"The information had been gathered by him to the benefit of him and his associates, to the detriment of their competitors," Justice Johnson said.

"A proper and impartial administration of the tax law is crucial to the operation of our federal government.

"By his crimes, the offender has ... damaged the public fabric of our community.

"The offender acted in this way for personal gain ... (a) clear conflict of interests between public duty and personal interest."

Justice Johnson sentenced Petroulias to a total of three years and two months in prison, with a non-parole period of two years.

MP murder conviction 'to be reviewed'

A judicial inquiry will be established to review the case of the man convicted of murdering NSW MP John Newman in 1994, a media report says.

NSW Chief Justice Jim Spigelman has ordered an inquiry into the conviction of Phuong Ngo for ordering the murder.

Ngo was convicted in 2001 of ordering the killing but not of actually carrying it out.

Mr Newman was gunned down outside his home in the south-western Sydney suburb of Cabramatta on September 5, 1994.

Related:

Doubts on Newman murder verdict
There are doubts about the validity of the conviction of Phuong Ngo, who is serving life in prison for [allegedly] masterminding Australia's first political assassination.

Labor under fire over developer donations

The Queensland Opposition has accused the Labor Party of accepting tens of thousands of dollars in donations from construction companies, at the same time as the Government was deciding whether to award them contracts.

Electoral returns show Multiplex donated more than $11,000 in the days before it lodged a tender for Brisbane's controversial North Bank development.

It also gave $20,000 while its bid for the Gallery of Modern Art was under consideration.

The Labor Party denies the Government is being influenced by donations.

But Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg has said it is a conflict of interest.

"Now there's nothing illegal in what's happened here," he said.

"But it's certainly highly questionable when you have developers lining up to be the preferred tenderer, or actually win a contract, and giving donations on the eve of that tender being released."

Quote: Why isn't a 'bribe' illegal and corrupt? Highly qestionable too!

Doubts on Newman murder verdict

There are doubts about the validity of the conviction of Phuong Ngo, who is serving life in prison for [allegedly] masterminding Australia's first political assassination.

The state Labor MP John Newman was shot in the driveway of his Cabramatta home in 1994. Ngo, a former Fairfield City councillor and Mekong Club honorary president, was alleged to have wanted to take Newman's seat in Parliament. In 2001 after his third trial - his first was aborted and the second had a hung jury - Ngo was found guilty of organising Newman's murder.

However, his two co-accused, David Dinh, who was accused of pulling the trigger, and Quang Dao, the alleged driver of the getaway car, were acquitted.

Now there is new evidence which claims raises doubt about the validity of Ngo's conviction.

The alleged murder weapon, a .32 calibre Beretta, was found in the Georges River almost four years after the murder. The gun was so corroded that Australian ballistics experts had been unable to conclude that it was the murder weapon. But a German ballistics expert gave evidence that the pistol recovered from the river was "highly likely" to be the one used in the killing.

One of Australia's foremost corrosion experts, Dr Ian MacLeod, has said that the gun in the river could not have been the murder weapon because the degree of corrosion indicated it had been in the river for much longer than the estimated time.

Their are challenges to the phone records that police used to connect Ngo to the weapon in the river. Ngo's mobile phone records placed him near the spot the gun was found within half an hour after the MP's murder.

New research, has discovered "grey areas" near phone towers which cast doubt about crucial evidence linking Ngo with the murder weapon.

In his first interview since his acquittal, Quang Dao maintains Ngo's innocence. "I know for sure that Phuong is not involved in that murder," says Dao, the alleged getaway driver, because he - Dao - was in the Mekong Club's white Camry picking up his children at the time Ngo was alleged to have been in the same Camry outside Newman's house at the time of the murder.

Another witness - whose evidence was crucial in securing Ngo's conviction - had his own murder charge dropped in return for giving evidence against Ngo.

Ngo's appeals, including to the High Court, have been unsuccessful and he is serving his life sentence at the most secure jail in the country, Supermax at Goulburn.

After seven day's deliberating at the end of Ngo's second trial in 2000, which ended in a hung jury, the jury informed Justice James Wood there was no prospect of reaching a verdict.

Much later, the juror, who had refused to budge while the rest of the jury wanted to convict, posted the following comment on his website: "To be fair to me, the Crown should now tell the country, and the world, one positive thing about me - that I foiled a plan to put an innocent man in jail for the rest of his life."

Related:

Phuong Ngo: An Innocent Man Stands Convicted, Another Victim of N.S.W. Government Corruption and Conspiracy

In 1994 Phuong Ngo was wrongfully convicted of the murder of John Newman: yet another innocent man framed by N.S.W. police with the connivance of the N.S.W. government and its judiciary. Mr Ngo remains in gaol: in fact he is in the HRMU (High Risk Management Unit) in Goulburn, with a lot of other political prisoners of N.S.W.

Why are they in a 'high risk management' unit when they are model prisoners? Ask Mr Iemma, maybe he knows.

There is no exit strategy for these prisoners, living in solitary, airless, sunless conditions not unlike Guantanamo Bay; no hope for them to be transferred to a lower security gaol in the future.

Most people I have spoken to, when shown the evidence for the acquittal of Phuong Ngo, firmly hold the belief that he was framed.

Mr Ngo does not have a colourful past or troubled youth. Mr Ngo is an intelligent, articulate gentleman, a former leader of his community and a sincere member of his local Vietnamese Catholic church.

The chronology of events is this:

September 1994 John Newman MP shot dead at his Cabramatta home.

March 1998 Phuong Ngo, Quang Dao and Tuan Van Tran arrested during the coroner's inquest into John Newman's death.

1999 First trial - aborted due to prosecution misconduct.

2000 Alleged shooter David Dinh is arrested after Tuan Van Tran turns crown witness and is indemnified.

Second trial (Phuong and Quang) - jury can't agree.

June 2001 Third trial - Quang and David acquitted, Phuong convicted.

Mark Tedeschi QC, the Crown Prosecutor, is an expert at what he does. Mr Tedeschi always presents the police evidence to the jury very convincingly. It is not for Mr Tedeschi to decide that the police evidence has been manufactured. It is his job simply to present to the jury what he has.

This having been said, it was Mark Tedeschi who prosecuted the alleged Hilton Bombers, including Tim Anderson, who fully supports Mr Ngo in his efforts to prove his innocence.

In 1984, Mr Tedeschi was criticized by then Chief Justice Murray Gleeson when he overturned the verdict against Tim Anderson. Murray Gleeson stated that Mr Tedeschi had misrepresented the evidence to the jury, contributing to the miscarriage of justice.

Tim Anderson, Ross Dunn and Paul Alister lost seven years of their lives due to a police conspiracy. You would think a man as intelligent as Mark Tedeschi could see through these conspiracies and take a moral stand against them. But no, he just does his job as required. What a great public servant, and so typical of their attitude - ask no questions, see no evil, hear no evil.

Phuong Ngo's supporters are numerous. They point to his genuineness as a community activist who has earned respect over a large number of years and freely gave of his time to help others.

In the John Newman murder trial:
*The alleged killers were not convicted. Mr Ngo is not alleged to have fired the gun.
*Another man, "Mr A", confessed on tape - but the jury was not allowed to know this.
*The motive was disproved: The prosecution claimed Mr Ngo wanted Mr Newman's seat in Parliament. But at the trial it was established Mr Ngo was lined up for a seat in the Upper House. John Della Bosca was supporting Mr Ngo for an Upper House seat.
*Induced evidence was used.
*Three people were originally charged: only Mr Ngo was convicted.
*The media generated racial prejudice, using such phrases as "Asian crime boss", "Cabramatta Overlord", "Ethnic gang connections".

As an abrasive and arrogant local member, John Newman had many enemies in the area. Of all people, why would a gentle and educated man such as Phuong Ngo be the culprit? Phuong Ngo is clearly a political prisoner of New South Wales. He's the fall guy.

Phuong was convicted on circumstantial evidence given by witnesses with every reason to lie. Mark Tedeschi excused one witnesse's blatant lies by claiming he wasn't very intelligent.

Mr Ngo's recent letter to me was beautifully handwritten and articulate as always; thinking of others rather than himself; it hurts me so much that this good man is not only behind bars, but in the most evil prison in the country, the Goulburn HRMU, a place of torture, claustrophobia, airlessness and hopelessness. The innocent in the HRMU comfort each other on the rare occasions they are able to speak. They try to maintain hope while their lives slip away.

In agreement with Tim Anderson and the Vietnamese community in Cabramatta I call on the Attorney General to set up an inquiry into the police investigation of the John Newman murder, the conduct of the prosecutor and the issuing of indemnities to witnesses.

This state is so rotten with corruption it defies belief.

Posted July 4th, 2007 by Anonymous

Related:

Junee Prison, NSW Parliament and Noble Cause Corruption
I have not been charged with any offence. The first thing I knew was when they (the Intel officer) at Junee had me called to reception. I was then told that I was going to segregation for good order and discipline.

Carr defends prison handling of political PRISONER
Bob Carr should be ashamed of himself after giving the prisons Commissioner Rotten Ron Woodham another filthy job setting up Phuong Ngo as one of the most dangerous prisoners in the State.

DCS: Protection gangs? - Ngo exploited in prison
New South Wales prison officials claim to have disbanded a gang in the Lithgow jail set up to protect convicted murderer, Phuong Ngo.

Watchdog slams jails oversight

AUSTRALIA'S only independent prison watchdog has heavily criticised the oversight of Victorian jails, saying the existing system of monitoring abuses and corruption is "well short of what a democratic society is entitled to".

The criticism of the lack of transparency in Victoria's prisons by the Western Australian Inspector of Custodial Services, Professor Richard Harding, comes after The Age revealed secret documents detailing improper behaviour by staff at the state's largest female jail.

Professor Harding said the Victorian Government's failure to release its multiple inquiries into assaults, deaths, drug use and staff impropriety in the state's jails could be fuelling problems inside prisons.

Professor Harding told The Age: "This is important stuff. Would it have stopped it more quickly if the reports had been made public? My guess is it would. In WA, I have had similar issues and I feel confident the release of my reports covering these issues have lanced the boil of this kind of stuff."

Professor Harding testified at a Victorian court hearing earlier this month after he was called as a witness by the Western Suburbs Legal Service. The service is fighting for the release of a secret review of the placement of prisoners by Corrections Victoria into solitary confinement.

Documents obtained under freedom of information laws show Victoria's prison watchdog, the Office of Correctional Services Review, has completed more than 100 investigations into prison incidents since 2000. None have been released.

Professor Harding said the Victorian watchdog was compromised because it was part of the Justice Department, which also manages prisons.

"People can't but help be aware of the problems they may create within the department with their reports, whereas an autonomous external inspectorate (has) a fearless approach to controversy," he said.

"It is well short of what a democratic society is entitled to and we come back again to the human rights issues. In the end, these can only be properly traversed by external accountability.

"If you have an external inspectorate, all of these things — justice and fairness and decency to the individual — and the way the prisons are spending their money become visible to the public."

But a spokesman for Corrections Minister Bob Cameron said the state's jails were subject to rigorous oversight. The spokesman said the Ombudsman's office had the power to demand investigation reports from the Justice Department and conduct its own inquiries, which could be tabled in Parliament.

[Well if it's anything like NSW then the ombudsman actually says... they have no power to ask for any evidence in relation to 'discretionary' decisions made by the commissioner, those having been made for the 'good order and security of the prison. Therefore the Ombudsman is said to be a toothless sort of terrier and that those answers are given to complainants and in fact very little is done when complaints are made and therefore end up getting to this point where they're out of control.]

The Age yesterday revealed that prison guards at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, which houses up to 260 female prisoners, were told by experienced officers to break rules, conducted improper strip searches and falsified records.

The breaches are revealed in prison documents detailing concerns raised in October 2006 by new prison officers.

Documents reveal women's prison rules flouted
GUARDS at Victoria's largest women's prison were told by experienced officers to break rules, conducted improper strip searches and falsified records, according to secret prison documents.

Behind the wire
The documents, from 2003 and 2004, outlined claims that "prison officers at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre were sexually assaulting female prisoners and standing over prisoners to obtain sexual favours".

PDF Prison staff briefing notes

PDF Documents about sexual assault allegations in 2003