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What the CCC investigated
The report, Report into bribery and corruption in maintenance and service contracts within North Metropolitan Health Service, examined NMHS maintenance and essential-services contracting. It was tabled in the Legislative Assembly as Paper 1562. The subject was procurement and contract administration, not clinical care or patient treatment.
The Commission described a group of building and facilities-maintenance contractors invoicing NMHS for tens of millions of dollars of work over a six-to-ten-year period. It said senior officers ensured contractors received work and authorised invoices. These are findings and opinions set out in the CCC’s public report, not an independent calculation of the total loss to taxpayers.
What the report called bribery and procurement fraud
The CCC characterized regular, expensive gifts and gratuities to some NMHS officers as bribes, and systematic manipulation of procurement as financial fraud. The report described contractor-funded travel, meals and hospitality, as well as cash benefits. It also identified procurement practices including collusive tendering or bid-rigging, conflicts of interest, inflated invoices and contract variations.
The CCC reported that more than $125,000 was spent on lunches for NMHS employees over a decade, and more than $150,000 on travel benefiting John Fullerton and David Mulligan. These are amounts stated in the 2018 CCC report; they should not be read as a complete accounting of public loss.
A 2018 CCC media release also described an approximately $170,000 fraudulent NMHS invoice for renovation work on a senior officer’s private residence. That figure and characterization are attributable to the Commission’s reporting.
How the conduct came to light—and why controls failed
The report says a whistleblower’s approach brought the breadth of the conduct to light. Although NMHS had policies and procedures, the CCC said they did not prevent the wrongdoing. It also said warning signs were not explored and that some staff feared job consequences if they spoke out.
The investigation ran from August 2017 to May 2018. The report describes more than 80 compulsory notices for documents, search warrants, surveillance and 21 private examinations. It says the evidence included documentary material, witness evidence and surveillance. People adversely mentioned in a draft report were offered an opportunity to make representations.
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What happened after the report
NMHS’s 2018–19 annual report called the CCC report a serious wake-up call and recorded several corrective steps:
- Targeted training for facilities-management staff in July and August 2018.
- Training on the procurement development and management system (PDMS) in October 2018.
- Procurement training included in induction for new staff.
- Identified facilities-management contracts entered in the PDMS.
Those actions were reported for 2018–19. They do not establish whether the measures remain in place or how effective they have been since.
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Were people named in the report convicted?
The CCC recommended that relevant authorities consider prosecuting certain people for possible offences. The Commission explicitly cautioned that such a recommendation is not a finding that anyone committed a criminal offence, and it is not itself a prosecuting authority. The report therefore does not establish that a person named in it was charged, prosecuted or convicted. Later court outcomes are not established by the report.
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