Showering
excessive gifts and benefits on any public official amounts to bribery and
corruption Justice Fitzgerald ruled when convicting contractor Stephen James
Borlase and Auckland City roading manager Murray John Noone over corrupt payments
exceeding $1.2 million. There is no need
to prove those receiving corrupt payments in fact acted dishonestly in return
or that there was an intent to influence decisions made, Her Honour said.
Borlase was one of two directors of
contractor Projenz (2005) Ltd. He was
convicted of corruptly providing payments and benefits to staff at Rodney
District Council and Auckland Transport.
Noone as director of transport at Rodney Council and later as road
corridor manager for Auckland Transport was convicted of corruptly receiving
some $1.1 million under a sham consultancy agreement along with travel and
hotel accommodation worth about $84,000.
The High Court was told Noone invoiced Projenz between $8000 and $10,000
monthly for consultancy advice over a seven year period. There was no evidence of any consultancy
services in fact being provided. In
addition, Projenz paid Noone $200,000 in June 2010 for what the prosecution
described as a one-off payment to dissuade Noone from taking a private sector
job and instead take up a role within the restructured Auckland super-city
ensuring Projenz had “its man” within newly created Auckland Transport. A one-off $40,000 payment was made two years
later in what the prosecution said was reward for contracts awarded a few days
previously to Projenz.
Justice Fitzgerald said it is not against
the law to make and receive gifts of token value as part of the “usual
courtesies of life.” This is assessed
against the value of the benefit and the context in which it is provided. The travel and hotel benefits provided to
Noone, which included 53 nights hotel accommodation in the Auckland CBD, went
beyond the normal incidences of marketing and relationship building.
Another Auckland transport manager,
Barrie Kenneth James George, pleaded guilty before trial to corruption in
receiving travel and accommodation benefits from Projenz totalling about
$125,300. He was sentenced to ten months
home detention. Projenz funded travel
for George to make multiple trips to Japan visiting his son in jail and travel
for a family holiday in Fiji.
R.
v. Borlase & Noone – High Court (9.12.16)
17.008