ICAC recommends 139 charges against 11 people

Updated November 5 2012 - 6:45pm, first published October 7 2008 - 11:32pm
Frank Vellar and Beth Morgan
Frank Vellar and Beth Morgan

The Independent Commission Against Corruption has recommended 11 individuals be prosecuted for 139 criminal offences for corruption offences in a scandal it said was without precedent.Below is the text of the ICAC media release:The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) today made 24 corrupt conduct findings against 10 people and has recommended seeking advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) with respect to prosecuting 11 individuals for 139 criminal offences in relation to its investigation into corruption allegations at Wollongong City Council (WCC).In the third and final part of its Report on an investigation into corruption allegations affecting Wollongong City Council, the ICAC has also made 27 corruption prevention recommendations, many of which will have broader relevance to other councils across NSW.Corrupt conduct findings have been made against former Senior Development Project Officer Beth Morgan, who abused her position at the council to provide favours to developers with whom she was intimately involved by improperly approving applications for excessive developments, providing monetary concessions and leaking council information.Corrupt conduct findings have also been made against two of the developers Ms Morgan assisted (Frank Vellar and Bulent Glen Tabak) and three of her superiors at the Council (former General Manager Rod Oxley and former senior managers Joe Scimone and John Gilbert), who ignored evidence of her misconduct and also themselves provided unduly favourable treatment to Mr Vellar or Mr Tabak. Mr Scimone's conduct was influenced by his undisclosed receipt of a $10,000 watch from Mr Tabak.The Commission further found that former Councillor Valerio Zanotto engaged in corrupt conduct by leaking confidential council information to Mr Vellar and voting in favour of his development proposals while concealing his friendship and financial relationship with him. The Commission also found that former councillors Kiril Jonovski, Zeki Esen and Frank Gigliotti engaged in corrupt conduct by soliciting a political donation from Mr Vellar in the order of $20,000 in return for supporting one of his development proposals and also by completing false or misleading pecuniary interest returns.The report also identifies other weak areas at the Council that contributed to the corrupt conduct, including Mr Oxleys pro-development enthusiasm and his actions in dismantling, undermining and ignoring internal anti-corruption firewalls, which created a straightforward opportunity for corrupt developers to influence the development application assessment process from start to finish. His conduct was therefore conduct liable to allow, encourage or cause the occurrence of corrupt conduct.The ICACs report also says that in hindsight, it is possible that the NSW Planning Department could have played a stronger role in regard to the councils application of State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP) No. 1, through applying its entitlement to withhold concurrence for SEPP 1 dispensations and by obliging the Council to record and report its SEPP 1 decisions.The ICAC Commissioner, the Hon Jerrold Cripps QC, said that it is not uncommon to find cases where multiple layers of management in an organisation fail to detect corrupt conduct or mismanage known corruption risks. But to establish actual corrupt conduct within five levels of a NSW public sector organisation, as has occurred with Wollongong City Council, is without precedent, he said.The ICAC is of the opinion that consideration should be given to obtaining the advice of the DPP with respect to prosecuting Beth Morgan for 27 offences including misconduct in public office, providing favourable assistance to the developers, and corruptly receiving benefits.Other individuals that consideration should be given to obtaining the advice of the DPP with respect to prosecuting for various offences are Glen Tabak, Frank Vellar, Joe Scimone, Val Zanotto, Kiril Jonovski, Zeki Esen, developer Lou Tasich and Frank Gigliotti (including an offence under the Statutory Declarations Act 1959 for making a false statement in a statutory declaration that he told a Commission officer about a meeting between himself, Mr Vellar and Wollongong State Member of Parliament, Noreen Hay).Advice should also be obtained with respect to prosecuting Ray Younan and Gerald Carroll for various offences. These individuals falsely represented that they were, or knew, Commission officers and could corruptly influence the Commissions investigation in return for payments.They corruptly solicited and received $340,000 from Mr Vellar, Ms Morgan, Mr Zanotto, Mr Scimone, Mr Tasich and a $500 case of whiskey from Mr Gigliotti. Mr Zanotto also authorised Mr Younan to collect and temporarily retain $154,000, which he claimed to be a debt from Mr Vellar. Although Mr Younan collected the $154,000, he did not repay Mr Zanotto.As part of this investigation, the ICAC held a public inquiry from 18 February to 4 March 2008, at which 14 witnesses testified. Part One of the report, issued on 4 March, recommended that all civic offices in relation to the Council be removed. The Governor of NSW promptly proclaimed as such, and appointed three administrators to the council. The second part of the report, released on 28 May 2008, recommended that consideration be given to suspending the consent granted by the Council for the $100-million Quattro development with a view to its revocation due to the serious corrupt conduct of Ms Morgan and Mr Vellar.All three parts of the report are available on the ICAC website at www.icac.nsw.gov.au.See Thursday's Mercury for 13 pages of coverage on ICAC developments.

Subscribe now for unlimited access.

$0/

(min cost $0)

or signup to continue reading

See subscription options

Get the latest Wollongong news in your inbox

Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date.

We care about the protection of your data. Read our Privacy Policy.