By Megan Gorrey
In mid-2020, as pandemic lockdowns began to bite the construction sector, subcontractor Jeremy Clarke had finished a big project on the state’s South Coast and was on the hunt for more work.
His desire to win new contracts – preferably on government projects – coincided with an infrastructure boom at the City of Canterbury-Bankstown Council, a corruption inquiry has heard.
General Works and Construction director and shareholder Jeremy Clarke.Credit: ICAC
Clarke, an engineer and owner of General Works and Construction, told the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption he had spoken to his former colleague, Pietro Cossu, who was contracted as the council’s construction team leader, about picking up some jobs around that time.
“Pietro said, ‘Our budget is ramping up. We’ve got shitloads of work. We don’t have enough contractors to do the work. Are you available? And are your guys available?’
“And that’s really where it all started,” Clarke said.
The inquiry, which is examining whether Cossu and former council employee Benjamin Webb favoured General Works and Construction when awarding council contracts for financial benefits, has heard Cossu tweaked some of the quotes Clarke sent him for council projects.
Counsel assisting the commission, Georgia Huxley, said in her opening address GWAC was awarded multiple council projects, for which Cossu was often project manager or officer, between 2020 and 2022. Among them were works at Bankstown library and the Appian Way pedestrian mall.
“In a number of the projects Mr Clarke sent Mr Cossu a copy of the proposed quote prior to formally submitting it to council,” Huxley said.
“In many of those instances the proposed quote was changed after Mr Clarke had sent it to Mr Cossu and before it had been submitted to council and in some of those instances the quote was amended or prepared by Mr Cossu himself.”
A contract awarded to a company to install a cooling tower at the Bankstown Library and Knowledge Centre has come under the spotlight of the corruption inquiry.Credit: Kate Geraghty
Clarke gave evidence at the inquiry this week that he had met Cossu when both men were working on the B-Line bus corridor project in Sydney about 2018. Clarke had instructed his accountant to set up GWAC, which was registered in July 2020, with the goal to carry out civil construction works.
Asked whether Cossu had told him he would help Clarke win contracts with the council, Clarke said:
“I was looking for [Cossu] to help me because I hadn’t dealt with local government before, so, you know, I was obviously hoping that his guidance would help me to get work within the council.”
The first contract the company won for the council was to install a cooling tower at the library.
The inquiry heard Clarke had emailed Cossu a quote of $16,890 to carry out the works days after his company was registered. Two other companies had also provided quotes, including one for $30,337.
Phone records showed Clarke and Cossu spoke twice later that same day, before Clarke emailed him hours later with a quote for $27,980 for the same job.
Asked what had changed in the four hours between the two emails, Clarke said Cossu would have told him that he wouldn’t be able to use an on-site lift to access the roof of the library and that “carrying steel structures upstairs is heavy and hard, so there was more cost in doing that”.
He denied Cossu had told him what figures to include.
Huxley said: “You went away and considered these extra items and ended up with a quote about $3000 cheaper, and you knew that if you had a lesser quote that that would mean it was more likely for you to be awarded the project?”
Clarke said he “didn’t know what other people quoted”, and he “didn’t think” Cossu had told him.
The inquiry is also scrutinising whether Cossu and Webb partially or dishonestly exercised their official functions by using or attempting to use another company, PMLV Invest and Const Pty Ltd, to supply subcontractors to the council without disclosing a financial interest.
The inquiry heard Clarke and Cossu had also worked together on projects outside the council jobs, and PMLV had invoiced Clarke an estimated $300,000 to $400,000 for works between 2020 and 2022.
Clarke said Cossu had told him he’d declared it to the council: “I saw a piece of paper where he said that he knew me or knew of my entity, and he had a conflict of interest on some things with that.”
Clarke told the inquiry he had first met Webb, who was manager of the council’s works and projects unit, “when he fired me on the B-Line project”.
He described Webb as a “prickly character” who “had conflict with many people”.
“I wasn’t interested in Ben Webb. I just wanted the work for my company, that’s all I was interested in.”
Cossu and Webb are due to give evidence to the inquiry next week.
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