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A sacked Transport for NSW official at the centre of a kickback scandal has repeatedly insisted that he did not seek to take work away from a contractor after their dealings soured, despite an anti-corruption inquiry being shown a text message exchange in which he told a workmate to “f--- them bitches”.
In his fourth day in the witness box, Ibrahim Helmy, 38, was questioned again about the dealings he had with contractor Direct Traffic, which involved him receiving gift cards and cash in return for it being awarded work for the agency.
The inquiry was played audio of an intercepted phone conversation between Helmy and Direct Traffic director Mechelina “Louisa” Van Der Ende-Plakke on June 28, 2021, when NSW was in the midst of lockdowns to curb the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sacked Transport for NSW official Ibrahim Helmy appears in the witness box at the ICAC inquiry on Wednesday.Credit: ICAC
In the 18-minute phone conversation, Van Der Ende-Plakke told Helmy that she had been “shocked” at what the then-Transport for NSW official had said her company owed him, and wanted to end their dealings with him.
Helmy conceded to Van Der Ende-Plakke during the phone call played to the inquiry that “it’s not 100 per cent legal”, before asking her if he could meet one more time.
The phone call came several days after Helmy had met Van Der Ende-Plakke and husband Adam Spilsted, during which she had expressed shock at the amount of money he was seeking from them. The inquiry heard that she believed Helmy was seeking more than $714,000 from their small company.
Helmy rejected the proposition put to him on Wednesday that he had been seeking more than $700,000 from them, saying that he did not recall them mentioning a figure. However, he accepted that the amount he believed was owing to him was over $400,000.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption is investigating allegations that Helmy was the mastermind behind corrupt relationships with nine companies that were paid at least $343 million in contracts by Transport for NSW in return for kickbacks.
He is accused of pocketing $11.5 million in kickbacks – including bundles of cash, gold bullion and cryptocurrency – from the contractors in return for them being awarded work on the state’s roads.
Under questioning from ICAC counsel assisting Rob Ranken, SC, Helmy also disputed the proposition put to him on Wednesday that he ever took steps to deny work to Direct Traffic or award work to a different company after Van Der Ende-Plakke sought to end the dealings in 2021.
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However, the inquiry was shown text messages on November 28, 2023, between Helmy and then Transport for NSW colleague Peter Le, his alleged co-conspirator in the kickback schemes.
In response to Le asking in the text message exchange whether he should give work to Direct Traffic, Helmy said: “naa just give it to Traffic Logistics.”
In another exchange between the pair on December 4 that year, Le said: “do we award anything to Direct Traffic.”
Helmy responded: “haha naa fuk them bitches.”
Ranken said the text message exchanges represented separate instances where Helmy took active steps to ensure work was not issued to Direct Traffic, even though it was ranked first.
Helmy disputed the proposition.
He did concede that by June 2023 – about two years after his dealings with Direct Traffic ended – that he had entered into an improper relationship with another contractor, Lack Group Traffic.
Earlier, Helmy also maintained that he did not harbour concerns about the improper arrangement with Direct Traffic being discovered by officials at Transport for NSW.
Asked why he believed that, Helmy said: “I don’t have an answer.”
He denied it was because he had effective control from end-to-end in Transport for NSW’s procurement process when it came to traffic control matters.
However, he accepted that no one else was effectively supervising the issuing of work orders.
He also conceded he was the person who ultimately signed off on payments for work done by companies on the agency’s traffic control panel.
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Ranken said: “No one was really supervising what you were doing. Your supervisors weren’t checking on your work and what you were doing. Is that how it worked?”
After pausing for several seconds, Helmy responded: “Yes. I guess I wasn’t told otherwise.”
He accepted that there were many occasions when his supervisors were leaving matters for him to manage.
Helmy will return to the witness box on Thursday.
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