A senior NSW Roads and Maritime Services official engaged in "serious corrupt conduct" by awarding more than $12.2 million in work to two companies owned by his friends.
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In an extensive report released Friday, the NSW Independent Commission against Corruption found Samer Soliman, a former manager of RMS's Heavy Vehicle Programs Unit, had abused his power repeatedly.
He awarded six RMS contracts worth almost $346,000 to his friend Stephen Thammiah's company, Novation Engineering Pty Ltd, which was a joint enterprise created with Mr Soliman between November 2015 and June 2016.
By rigging the tender process in his company's favour, he was handsomely awarded nearly $11 million in contracts mostly to do with procuring weigh scales and chargers.
Mr Soliman also invoiced RMS a total of about $803,000 for scale parts, software and hardware, knowing that such items would either not be supplied or marked-up by his company.
He further received cash payments of nearly $350,000 from Mr Thammiah in person or from Novation's account.
"Mr Soliman's conduct was not opportunistic - it was planned, and he manipulated controls with strategic intent," the 192-page ICAC report said.
Mr Soliman further "corruptly awarded" a contract to another friend of his, consulting company owner Ali Hamidi, by manipulating tenders worth $1.3 million between January 2017 and August 2018
A business systems analyst, Jainesh (Jai) Singh, who was also a friend of Mr Hamidi and reported to Mr Soliman, was found to be improperly fudging tender submissions and failing to declare his conflict of interest.
ICAC said Mr Soliman, Mr Singh, Mr Thammiah and Mr Hamidi were all known each other from high school or from previously working at Optus at the same time.
The Commission is seeking the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) on whether any prosecution should be commenced.
Australian Associated Press
