NSW transport official admits leaking secret bid files in $11.5m corruption scheme

A transport official sent confidential documents to a contractor he later received kickbacks from, helping them finalise a bid for traffic control work.

Ibrahim Helmy took plans from other contractors, converted them from PDF to editable Microsoft Word documents, and sent them on to Direct Traffic the day before their tender was due.

It only took 30 seconds, he told the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption on Friday.

“It’s not about the time it took you ... it’s about the fact of you doing it,” counsel assisting the inquiry Rob Ranken SC said.

“Sure,” Mr Helmy responded.

“I didn’t realise it was commercial in confidence,” he said of the documents, marked “commercial in confidence” and “for internal use only”.

“I was sending him a sample so he can do his own.

“It’s wrong for me to send him, of course, I’m not denying, I’m just saying this was a sample.”

Mr Helmy did not think the contractor would simply copy and paste the information, despite a message referring to doing so, he told the inquiry.

He acknowledged it was not appropriate to provide so much assistance, but denied he did so expecting to benefit in the future.

But Mr Helmy later said it was “obvious” he was going to receive cash or other benefits for his assistance, and “might have provided a bit extra help” to ensure the contractor could get work.

It came amid repeated questioning from Mr Ranken and Commissioner John Hatzistergos, as both appeared to become frustrated.

“We seem to be going around in circles,” Mr Ranken said at one point.

More than $343 million in work was contracted during the alleged scheme, with Mr Helmy accused of receiving more than $11.5 million.

On Thursday, Mr Helmy told the inquiry he wasn’t sure handwriting on envelopes stuffed with cash was his.

The sums were not round figures, reflecting fake invoices to allow the contractor, Complete Linemarking, to withdraw from the bank without arousing suspicion.

The payments were tracked through spreadsheets, with sums handed over at fast food restaurants and service stations.

At one meeting at a western Sydney Oporto in July 2015, Mr Helmy picked up more than $60,000 in cash from a contractor.

But he texted a friend, who allegedly helped him “clean” more than $1 million, that he was supposed to get more.

“He lost 8k,” Mr Helmy texted.

“He says he pulled it out from the bank but now he can’t find it.”

Mr Helmy eventually grew so dissatisfied that he told another transport official he brought into the alleged scheme he wanted to “f*** off” the contractor.

“He’s been a burden and still hasn’t paid up,” Mr Helmy texted in June 2020.

Mr Helmy is in his fourth day of giving evidence, brought before the inquiry after being found hiding in a cupboard months after a warrant was issued for his arrest.

He has not been criminally charged but has been in custody to appear before the commission.