A corruption inquiry has heard how a NSW government worker got away for years with awarding work to contractors at inflated prices so he could receive kickbacks, including renovations on his house and Apple products.
Former NSW Roads and Maritime Services staffer Craig Steyn agreed on Monday that he had received hundreds of thousands of dollars through corrupt dealings over years. He only stopped when his house was raided in 2019.
Mr Steyn and fellow former RMS worker Alexandre Dubois are at the centre of the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption probe, which is holding six weeks of hearings into allegations against the pair.
Nobody in management, including his and Mr Dubois’ boss, ever appeared to pick up on his scheme, Mr Steyn agreed as he gave evidence in a public hearing on Monday.
“It was easy money, really, because there didn’t seem to be anybody policing the contracting system,” ICAC Commissioner Peter Hall QC said.
“Yes,” Mr Steyn agreed.
In one instance in 2018, Mr Steyn nudged telecommunications contractor Joseph Rahme to submit a quote for underboring work at Tweed Heads in the state’s north.
After Mr Rahme suggested he’d get a subcontractor to do the work for $18,000, Mr Steyn told him to submit a quote for $45,000 instead.
“You were saying he should significantly overcharge RMS for this job when he was just going to manage someone else doing the work?” counsel assisting the inquiry Jason Downing SC asked.
“Yes,” Mr Steyn replied.
Mr Rahme bought Mr Steyn Apple products worth over $10,000 and did work on the rebuilding of Mr Steyn’s Castle Hill home.
A year earlier, Mr Steyn had hassled Mr Rahme to apply to join a panel of contractors who would be used for maintenance jobs.
After Mr Rahme missed the deadline and sent Mr Steyn a WhatsApp message saying “oops”, Mr Steyn wrote back that “oops doesn’t begin to demonstrate it, this would have given you access to all NSW panels and works.”
He asked for Mr Rahme to provide more details to assist him to argue Mr Rahme’s company should be selected for the panel despite scoring zero out of 100 on a review.
Mr Rahme’s company was later selected for the panel. The other seven successful tenderers were all controlled by friends and associates of Mr Steyn or Mr Dubois.
Another company selected for the panel, SA Masters, was run by electrician Steven Masters.
Mr Steyn told the inquiry he did not know why Mr Masters bought him expensive Apple products.
When asked why Mr Masters would arrange to buy him Apple products, Mr Steyn said: “I asked him, ‘can you organise it?’ and he said ‘yes’.”
“I have no idea why he complied,” he said.
Mr Masters also did electrical work on Mr Steyn’s house after initially offering to do it for free.
Mr Dubois and Mr Steyn worked as program officers from 2014 in an RMS department associated with heavy vehicle maintenance and safety, and had both worked for the government agency since 2009.
They were allegedly awarded more than $41 million in contracts to companies with which they were linked, receiving almost $7m in kickbacks over the decade to 2019, when they were fired.
Mr Downing says it’s one of the most complex investigations that ICAC has ever undertaken.
The RMS suffered enormous losses, estimated to be many millions of dollars.
The inquiry continues before ICAC chief commissioner Peter Hall QC.
Australian Associated Press