Firm ‘improperly’ handed $2.6m wins more Tasmanian taxpayer funds

A company found by a corruption watchdog to have been ‘improperly’ awarded $2.6m in Tasmanian government contracts is again receiving taxpayer funds.

A company found by a corruption watchdog to have been “improperly” awarded $2.6m in state government contracts is again receiving taxpayer funds, prompting outrage from competitors.

Tasmania’s Integrity Commission in 2019 found video and online production company DCNSTRCT Pty Ltd was improperly given $2.6m in Education Department contracts from 2016 to 2018.

The commission found a senior figure in the firm was a “close friend” of a department manager and the ­bureaucrat “improperly awarded or attempted to influence” contracts to favour his mate. This involved in part, the commission found, breaking up work worth $1m into smaller jobs capped at $50,000 to avoid competitive tendering requirements.

The commission said the manager had “liaised” with this close friend in the company during procurement processes. While the manager left the public service, the commission said it had no jurisdiction over anyone outside government.

Despite pleas from competitor companies, the IC board opted to table a de-identified report in state parliament in October 2019 that did not name the manager, his friend or DCNSTRCT.

The Australian understands DCNSTRCT is again receiving taxpayer-funded contracts from at least one government department, provoking outrage from competitors who collectively unfairly lost millions of dollars to the firm in 2016-18.

It is not known how many contracts the company has received since the IC report but industry sources said DCNSTRCT was in recent weeks awarded a video production contract by the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment.

Documents obtained by The Australian suggest the work — on Aboriginal issues, the same subject area as the improperly awarded Education Department contracts — was not put to tender but rather subject to a request for quotes from several firms.

Multiple industry players are concerned DCNSTRCT was using its experience to gain further government contracts in the same subject area.

“The new contract they’ve got from DPIPWE may have been completely above board,” said Casey Farrell, managing director of Neon Jungle, “but the problem is that by DCNSTRCT having the contracts they got in a similar field from the Department of Education, (it has) a significant competitive advantage over everyone else in the market.

“This is because they had examples (of work) comparable to what was sought by DPIPWE. It gave DCNSTRCT a foot up. And if it didn’t go to market and was awarded on the basis of prior work, it gave them a foot in the door that was found by the IC to be undeserved.”

Two firms in the film and online video industry made similar comments.

The DCNSTRCT figure involved in the IC investigation did not return calls.