With renewed focus on corruption in NSW politics this week, with amendments to the ICAC rushed through Parliament, the NSW Greens WestConnex spokesperson and Member for Newtown Jenny Leong MP, is calling on Roads Minister Duncan Gay to assure the public that the construction company CIMIC (formerly Leighton Holdings), which has huge WestConnex contracts, is free of corruption.
“It’s alarming that in the same week that the government has interfered with the corruption watchdog ICAC, ASIC launched a large scale investigation into CIMIC - the company that’s been awarded over $3 billion dollars in WestConnex contracts, despite corruption allegations and police investigations going back at least four years,” she says.
“The Directors and officers of CIMIC are now under investigation by ASIC for possibly breaching their duties and hiding crucial information from their shareholders between 2012 and 2016 - at the same time that this company became one of the key WestConnex contractors.”
“The exposure of this company’s involvement in large scale overseas bribery scandals plus the sacking of a key local whistleblower should have been enough for Duncan Gay to review all Leighton/CIMIC WestConnex contracts. Why hasn’t this happened?”
“Back in 2012, the Australian Federal Police began investigating Leighton Holdings after they reported possible breaches. This was right at the time the NSW Government was paying them to develop WestConnex.”
“Duncan Gay needs to explain how these WestConnex contracts could have been awarded given the mandatory reporting requirements by the NSW Government Procurement Board, concerning any dishonest or illegal conduct by suppliers,” she said.
