Last night, A Current Affair kept Aussies’ eyes glued to their screens as Adele Graham detailed her experience witnessing alleged corruption while working for Transport for NSW (TfNSW).
The episode brought in a Total TV National Reach of 1,746,000 and a Total TV National Average Audience of 1,125,000 for Nine.
Detailing major allegations in an interview with A Current Affair, Graham claims to have witnessed corruption in excess of $110 million inside the TfNSW department.
Adele Graham is currently living a nomadic lifestyle, concerned for her safety.
While working for TfNSW, she was in charge of vetting companies and company directors during the department’s maintenance and delivery tender process.
“Contracts were being awarded to companies in excess of what they should have been given,” she told A Current Affair.
Graham alleges her manager at the TfNSW office in Yennora in western Sydney was favouring one company over others, Protection Barriers.
“They [Protection Barriers] should have been doing $7 million worth of work a year, in actual fact they were doing nearly $30 million worth of work a year,” Graham added.
Graham started to question how contracts were being chosen and whether her boss, Ibrahim Helmy, was benefiting from secret agreements.
She decided to make an internal complaint and then left her role. She provided a statement to the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), which is believed to have helped trigger a secret anti-corruption investigation, ‘Operation Wyvern’.
Last year, anti-corruption investigators raided the TfNSW Yennora office and the Protection Barriers headquarters in Grafton, NSW, which found millions of dollars worth of assets, including luxury cars and $100,000 in cryptocurrency.
Protection Barriers is now in administration.
A NSW Supreme Court heard Graham’s former TfNSW manager Helmy failed to attend an ICAC compulsory investigation and NSW Police have issued a warrant for his arrest.
“The department fully cooperates with the NSW ICAC in any instance where alleged or suspected corrupt conduct involving or affecting the NSW public sector has been reported. We are unable to comment further at this stage on any matters being considered by the ICAC,” a TfNSW spokesperson told A Current Affair.
Over on Seven, the AFL saw Collingwood beat Melbourne, with 1,795,000 tuning in according to the reach figure and a Total TV National Average Audience of 830,000.
Channel 10‘s Masterchef raked in a Total TV National Reach of 1,241,000 and a Total TV National Average Audience of 663,000.
