RMS manager Craig Steyn tells ICAC about father-in-law’s company

The ICAC has heard an RMS bureaucrat helped his father-in-law collect thousands of dollars to watch road repairs.

A bureaucrat who admitted to corruptly handing out millions of dollars of government contracts helped his father-in-law collect thousands to effectively watch repairs on NSW roads, the corruption watchdog has heard.

RMS manager Craig Steyn this week claimed he and co-worker Alexandre Dubois ran a “network” of corruption that handed out $44 million in contracts to friends and family.

Mr Dubois has not yet appeared at the Independent Commission Against Corruption to comment on the allegations.

RMS manager Craig Steyn arriving at ICAC this week. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Joel Carrett

Steyn, on Friday, was taken through the books of a company set up for his father-in-law Peter Manuel that was to work alongside RMS contractors who were providing Steyn kickbacks.

Mr Manuel, the commission heard, was paid thousands of dollars for “quality control”.

That meant he would observe contractors repairing gantries and road infrastructure and take photographs of the process.

One bill suggested Mr Manuel was paid thousands to travel to regional NSW for road works.

Commissioner Peter Hall QC asked if that was effectively the RMS paying Mr Manuel to “learn on the job”.

Steyn agreed.

The ICAC has previously heard Steyn’s pet contractors funded a life of luxury for the bureaucrat and his family.

His cousin said her company had won inflated RMS tenders and, in exchange, bought Steyn a Mercedes, paid almost $5000 for his wife’s birthday, $8000 for his brother’s legal fees and flew Mr Manuel out from South Africa.

On Wednesday, Steyn took the stand and immediately admitted he’d sought and received benefits from companies and acknowledged he had acted corruptly.

“I believe I got caught up in a network of corrupt work,” Steyn said, adding that the network “existed before me”.

Steyn then accused Dubois of being “instrumental” in the network and the one who swept him into the corruption.

“Through Mr Dubois I learned of works that could be done efficiently,” he said.

“He’d say ‘give it to me, I’ll take care of the work’.”

The hearings continue.