Special report: Whistleblower's claims over Sydney's biggest council
First on 7: A former employee of the City of Blacktown claims large contracts were awarded to a select group of businesses rather than the best contender.
The City of Blacktown is home to more than 300,000 people and Blacktown Council manages an annual budget of $358 million, which is bigger than some fully-fledged countries.
Where the council chooses to spend that money has the potential to make business owners extremely wealthy.
Kittu Randhawa explained: “Because we are a Government entity we like to share the work out so everyone gets a bite of the cherry, so to speak."
But, according to the whistleblower, a select group of businessmen was allowed to gorge itself on the cherries - regardless of who should have won the tenders.
Ms Randhawa alleges: "It was very much like a cartel, how are we going to divvy out this pool of work? My problem with the council in that was that the council gave them the opportunity to be a cartel."
She says her tipping point came in 2012, when she was asked to award work to someone who had not won the selection process.
"I couldn't and I didn't. I just thought whoever does this, it can't be me,” she said.
She knows correct procedure: from 2009 to 2013 Ms Randhawa was the council's purchasing and procurement manager and ‘got to see what was being spent on every activity in council’.
She claims what she saw was a deliberate pattern of awarding work to a pool of builders and service providers who had close relationships with the council.
7News has been told which businesses are allegedly involved, but we cannot reveal their names for legal reasons.
Ms Randahwa claimed: "It's an opportunity for fraud and if somebody is not taking advantage of that that would be a rarity in a council the size of Blacktown City Council, it is not possible that someone is not getting a perk or a lerk."
She said most small expenditures were awarded correctly but a significant number of large contracts were not.
She claims tender reports were anonymously altered to award work to favoured businesses and said: "The outcome was already determined, it was already desired, I think people who were in the tender process knew who was supposed to get the tender and it was just how we got around the administration of making that happen."
We approached the current Blacktown, Mayor Len Robinson, who was a councillor during the period.
He said: "I've just told you, I'm not answering your questions. So it's pointless you asking them."
When 7News asked him: Does Blacktown Council have a problem with the way it awards work? He replied: “No.”
Ms Randahwa says she fell into dispute with the council, but only after her attempts to impose structure to the tendering process.
She has referred some matters to the ICAC but wants the commission to carry out a full investigation.
We put the allegations to the council and their response was: "Council encourages anyone with concerns to raise them with council or other appropriate agency."
