Corruption Investigation
In 2007 and 2008 RailCorp was investigated by the Independent Commission Against Corruption. In a series of seven reports released during 2008, the ICAC reported that more than A$21 million in improper contracts and deals through the procurement of services in just three years. In June 2009, RailCorp terminated the contract of Vicki Coleman, its Chief Information Officer, and it was claimed that she was at the centre of claims of dishonesty and corruption. The ICAC recommended charges against 33 people; yet by April 2012, only eight people had faced the courts. Those that received custodial sentences included Allan Michael Blackstock (4½ years) and Renea Hughes (3½ years). Youssef (Joe) Madrajat was directed to undertake community service. Further charges are expected to be laid on others, and several are still waiting the outcome of criminal proceedings.
In light of the corruption issues, as well as complaints about poor service and overcrowding, there were media reports in 2008 that the Rees government would abolish RailCorp.
Read more about this topic: Rail Corporation New South Wales
Famous quotes containing the word corruption:
“Keep your hands clean and pure from the infamous vice of corruption, a vice so infamous that it degrades even the other vices that may accompany it. Accept no present whatever; let your character in that respect be transparent and without the least speck, for as avarice is the vilest and dirtiest vice in private, corruption is so in public life.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)