ICAC to investigate former Canterbury-Bankstown Council employee and subcontractor company

A former council employee and ex-contractor’s company netted an estimated $4 million profit after being accused of expressing a “preference” for employees supplied from their company through a recruitment agency to work for Canterbury-Bankstown council, a NSW ICAC hearing was told.

ICAC to probe former Canterbury-Bankstown Council employee and subcontractor.

A former council employee and ex-contractor’s company netted an estimated $4 million profit after being accused of expressing a “preference” for employees supplied from their company through a recruitment agency to work for Canterbury-Bankstown council, a NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) hearing was told.

The first day of the three-week ICAC hearing heard claims from counsel assisting Georgia Huxley that from February 2021 to September 2022, former contractor Pietro Cossu used his company PMLV Invest & Const Pty Ltd to supply contingent workers to recruitment agencies Randstad and Spinifex, who in turn supplied those workers to council.

“Many if not all of the workers were paid substantially less than the hourly rate charged to council,” Ms Huxley said.

General Manager for Western Sydney at Spinifex Recruiting Ben Trapman

Ms Huxley alleged former Canterbury-Bankstown council employee Ben Webb was the only person notified of the addition as PMLV as an authorised contractor.

Ms Huxley said Mr Cossu was listed as PMLV’s sole shareholder and director between October 2013 until 2023 as his father Ivan took over the reins as shareholder and director. Mr Cossu’s father Ivan is not accused of any wrong doing.

Ms Huxley said PMLV was paid $690,729.50 by Randstad for the work Mr Cossu was contracted to do at council during the period of his contract.

She said PMLV was left with a potential profit of more than $4.5 million after Spinifex and Randstand paid the company more than $7 million from 2021 to 2023 while PMLV only paid their subcontracted workers $2.6 million.

Former general manager for Western Sydney at Spinifax, Ben Trapman, told ICAC Canterbury-Bankstown council became a significant avenue of work for the company after Mr Webb sent him an email between late 2019 to early 2020.

Mr Trapman said Mr Webb introduced him to Mr Cossu as he said “Pietro might have some people suitable for work” with the council.

“The first meeting we had together when I first met Pietro, he said he worked on projects with Ben (Web) before and (they) knew each other,” he said.

Assisting council Georgia Huxley.

When Ms Huxley asked where the potential hires would be allocated to Canterbury-Bankstown council, Mr Trapman said: “No, but obvious it would be the capital works division so Mr Webb’s (department in council).”

Ms Huxley further pressed Mr Trapman on whether Mr Webb would “tend to look more favourably on PMLV candidates”, rather than other hires sources from Spinifex’s hire pool for roles within council.

“If you look at the results of what we place, there were definitely more PMLV candidates,” he said. “I can’t speak as to whether or not he looked more favourably at them.”

Mr Trapman denied the assertion by counsel of “working more in the best interest of PMLV than of the council” and said he “certainly did not” receive any financial benefit from Mr Cossu or Mr Webb.

ICAC commissioner Helen Murrell SC

This comes after counsel assisting Georgia Huxley alleged the number of contingency workers engaged in Mr Webb’s Works and Project unit at council has risen from 38 per cent of the total unit workforce in February 2021 to 71 per cent in September 2022.

The probe will further investigate whether Mr Cossu and Mr Webb “partially or dishonestly” exercised their roles by using a company called PMLV Invest & Const Pty Ltd for recruitment subcontractor services without disclosing their interests in the company.

The commission will also consider whether the duo “partially or dishonestly” exercised their roles to favour a second company, General Works & Construction Pty Ltd (GWAC) by attempting to influence the award of council contracts or use PMLV Invest & Const Pty Ltd to subcontract GWAC council contracts to benefit themselves or others.

ICAC to probe former Canterbury-Bankstown Council employee and subcontractor.

Assisting council Ms Huxley said the inquiry would focus on the awarding of contracts to GWAC for the upgrade of Bankstown library and knowledge centre and two projects relating to the upgrading of the cooling towers at the Bankstown library.

Ms Huxley said Mr Cossu was involved in a “large percentage of these projects” and in some instances, the owner of GWAC sent Mr Cossu a proposed quote of the project before it was submitted to council.

“And in some of those instances, the quote was amended or prepared by Mr Cossu himself,” Ms Huxley said.

ICAC alleges GWAC responded to a number of requested clarifications from council and over the course of an evaluation process “ failed for financial assessment for the project for a number of reasons, including its limited trading history, and lack of experience”.