Transport Minister Corey Wingard backs handling of $2.14 billion rail contract amid calls for a corruption probe
Transport Minister Corey Wingard has dodged a raft of questions about concerns over a rail contract. But emails he described as “fabricated” suddenly appeared in Parliament.
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Transport Minister Corey Wingard spent a good part of Thursday playing down probity concerns on a rail contract before acknowledging “fabricated emails” actually existed.
The Advertiser revealed an unsuccessful bidder for the $2.14bn contract to operate Adelaide’s public train system asked for an “independent probity investigation” into the tender process just weeks before it was awarded to a competitor.
In emails obtained by The Advertiser, Bombardier Transportation Australia president Wendy McMillan raised concerns about the process before the contract was awarded to Keolis Downer last week.
Bombardier was part of the Adelaide Next consortium bid, which also included Deutsche Bahn and John Holland.
Some of the concerns were about media commentary on “loser payments” to be made to unsuccessful bidders, and Keolis Downer being the frontrunner, but also the handling of the process that Ms McMillan described as “highly unusual”.
Mr Wingard spent Question Time in State Parliament dodging Opposition questions about the emails. He repeatedly claimed they were “fabricated” despite a spokesman for the company confirming Bombardier was aware of them and would “continue to comply with all probity and confidentiality obligations”.
Mr Wingard repeatedly backed the tender process.
“There was an independent probity adviser put in place,” he said. “It was signed off and went to the Auditor-General before the contract was signed.”
The Auditor-General’s report on the process would be released “in due course”.
Opposition transport spokesman Tom Koutsantonis asked if Mr Wingard was aware that Fergus Gammie, project director for outsourcing of rail services, had said in emails that there were multiple investigations into the probity of the privatisation program.
Mr Wingard again referred to “magical emails” that were eventually tabled by Mr Koutsantonis.
“The email was fabricated up until about two minutes ago,” Mr Wingard said after they were tabled.
Earlier in the day Rail, Tram and Bus Union secretary Darren Phillips called for the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption to investigate the tender process.
Mr Phillips said the revelations about the probity concerns added to suspicions the State Government was favouring Keolis Downer. He said the Marshall Government had “failed to meet the most basic governance standards”.