Luxury cars, iPhones, school fee payments and overseas travel were among more than $7 million in benefits received by two corrupt former NSW public servants who awarded government contracts in exchange for cash and lavish gifts.
For nearly a decade Alexandre Dubois and Craig Steyn awarded more than $38 million worth of roads and maritime contracts to companies that directly benefited themselves and people they knew.
The two men worked at the then Roads and Traffic Authority and/or Roads and Maritime Services (RTA/RMS) at the time.
An Independent Commission Against Corruption report released on Tuesday said lax supervision and poor managerial oversight contributed to the men getting away with the scheme from mid-2010 to about mid-2019.
The investigation, dubbed Operation Paragon, held 51 hearings between May 2021 and March 2022.
It found Mr Dubois received over $6.5 million in corrupt benefits from the deals, while Mr Steyn received benefits to the value of at least $743,841.
In addition to cash, Mr Dubois received numerous luxury sports cars and Mr Steyn got iPhones, iPads, payment of school fees, birthday parties and overseas travel, as well as housing materials for the construction of his house.
The report also identified nepotism, with Mr Steyn giving work to a company of which his cousin was director and permitted his father-in-law to work on RMS job sites as well as controlling a company that was in his father-in-law's name.
Mr Dubois also awarded work to his cousin as well as friends.
The report described the situation as "indicative of widespread failures in the fundamentals of procurement and management which allowed such a situation to come about".
It found the departments where the men worked did not conduct proper due diligence checks which would have raised red flags.
At times the contracts were split to keep them under the threshold that would have invited greater oversight, and prices were inflated to ensure a payoff for those involved.
ICAC has made nine recommendations for Transport for NSW to make its procurement process more corruption resistant.
It also recommended consideration be given to obtaining advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions about prosecuting Mr Dubois, Mr Steyn and another 12 individuals for various offences.
