ICAC recommends criminal charges in Wollongong scandal
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'Abused her position': Beth Morgan (AAP: Dean Lewins, file photo)
The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has released its final report into corruption at Wollongong Council and is recommending that 11 people be charged with criminal offences.
The ICAC report into Wollongong Council has been tabled this morning in New South Wales Parliament in Sydney.
The commission has recommended that advice be sought from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) about charging 11 people named during the investigation with 139 criminal offences.
It wants the former Wollongong Council planning officer, Beth Morgan, charged with 27 offences.
The commission found she abused her position to provide favours to developers with whom she was intimately involved.
The ICAC has also recommend that senior council staff member Joe Scimone be prosecuted along with the former ALP Wollongong councillors Val Zanotto, Kiril Jonovski, Zeki Esen and Frank Gigliotti.
The commission found Mr Gigliotti gave a false statement in statutory declaration he made about a meeting he had with a developer and the State MP, Noreen Hay.
The ICAC Commissioner, Jerold Cripps, says the level of corrupt conduct uncovered at Wollongong council was "without precedent".
The commission has made 27 recommendations designed to prevent corruption in councils across the state.
'Corruption-resistant'
New South Wales Premier Nathan Rees says he will task his department to make sure the recommendations are implemented.
Mr Rees is looking for the silver lining in today's final report into the scandal, saying it demonstrates NSW is corruption-resistant.
"As regrettable and as tawdry as that whole incident was, today's release of that report by the ICAC demonstrates that we are a corruption-resistant state and where it does exist it get rooted out," he said.
However, NSW Opposition leader Barry O'Farrell says if the state's Department of Planning had been more proactive, corruption at the Wollongong Council could have been prevented.
Mr O'Farrell says the State Government turned a blind eye to corruption within the council.
"We had the ICAC commissioner today saying this is the deepest, most entrenched piece of corruption that he's seen in his time, and what we know is that most developments at the centre of it were signed off by the State Government," he said.
'Disgusted'
NSW Transport Minister David Campbell is a former lord mayor of Wollongong and says he has been disgusted by the allegations, but insists there still a lot of good people working in local government there who deserve support.
"Those who have done the wrong thing should get their backsides kicked from here to kingdom come," he said.
"Those who do the right thing should be supported so they can get on with their daily lives and their jobs."
Former independent Wollongong Councillor Dave Martin says he is pleased criminal charges are recommended against the major players.
He says its vindication of the views he and other independents have held for a long time.
"I think most people in Wollongong will be pleased that these characters are finally going to face some criminal proceedings," he said.
"We can get on with the process of clearing these people out of local government administration, and hopefully, never to return."
The first ICAC report, released in March, recommended the council be sacked.
The second report delivered a month later recommended suspension of a development application for Mr Veller's $100 million Quattro development.
The ICAC said Mr Vellar requested Ms Morgan be assigned to assess the application when she returned from maternity leave in March 2004.
It said she began a sexual relationship with Mr Vellar two months later.
The watchdog said he gave the planner gifts and benefits worth thousands of dollars, including cash, holidays and home appliances.
