A correctional services executive and a plasterer have been ordered to stand trial accused of colluding to corrupt the tender and procurement process of an Adelaide prison upgrade.They have been ordered to stand trial in the District CourtPaul Andrew Robinson and Matthew Laurie Patzel pleaded not guilty in the Adelaide Magistrates Court to more than 20 counts of being a public officer who exercised power to secure a benefit.
The allegations stem from an investigation by the state's Independent Commissioner Against Corruption into the planned $150 million upgrade of Yatala Labour Prison — the state's biggest jail — in Adelaide's north. Mr Robinson, a senior executive in the Department for Correctional Services and Mr Patzel, a plastering business owner from Mount Gambier in South Australia's south-east,When they first appeared in court in 2019, prosecutor Leah O'Donnell said there were 23,000 telephone intercepts connected with the case, along with surveillance material.
A spokesman for the state government at the time said no tenders had been awarded for the prison upgrade, with the project halted pending the outcome of an internal investigation by the department.
Source: Law Daily Report (lawdailyreport.net)
Terrific work by ICAC here, another example of why they should be expanded to the federal level
Any second now we will find out these guys are LNP donors and GREAT pals with the premier