News Service from House Harris

NSW: More corruption findings in latest RailCorp report

SYDNEY, Nov 19 AAP - The NSW corruption watchdog has made corrupt conduct findings against a further 11 individuals as it winds up its long-runninginvestigations into scams and bribery at RailCorp.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) on Wednesday released its seventh investigation report, with findings made against George Laidlaw, Brett Schliebs, Laze Kotevski, Christian Hansen, Carlo Araldi, Joseph Hili, Nat Severino, Ljupce Petrovski, Ian Affleck and Scott Penny, plus John Skinner of Total Plant Services.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) will be asked to consider the laying of various criminal charges against the 11 individuals, mostly RailCorpemployees and contractors.

A total of 97 corrupt conduct findings have now been made against 31 peoplein the RailCorp investigation.

ICAC also has sought, or will seek, the DPP's advice on a total of 663 criminal charges against 33 people.

A final report, yet to be released, will detail the ICAC's corruption prevention recommendations for the whole RailCorp operation.

In the latest report, ICAC Commissioner Jerrold Cripps QC found Mr Laidlaw,the RailCorp Commercials Renewals Division Track team leader, and his team"grasped at every opportunity to exploit their employment at RailCorp to corruptly maximise the financial benefits they derived from their work".

Their conduct included using false accommodation receipts to improperly access RailCorp travel and accommodation allowances in excess of55,000, and selling stolen RailCorp scrap metal worth more than10,000.

While responsible for allocating more than1 million in RailCorp contract work each year as a team leader in the Commercial Renewals Division, Mr Laidlaw received substantial benefits from contractors and steered millions ofdollars worth of work to favoured operators.

Contractors Carlo Araldi and Joseph Hili were the main beneficiaries, with Mr Araldi benefitting to the tune of2.6 million over three years, and Hili Excavations paid more than2.7 million in just over two years.

Mr Laidlaw also signed false work dockets for both contractors, and he and Mr Schliebs also engaged Mr Araldi to work within the rail corridor under his brother's name after he failed a RailCorp drug test.

Other members of the Commercial Renewals Division engaged in unauthorised secondary employment without disclosing conflicts of interest.

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