The former Director of Engineering at Etheridge Shire Council, and his friend, the director of a engineering company, have both been jailed for secret commissions offences following a CCC investigation.
Rohana Samarasekera, the former Director of Engineering at Etheridge Shire Council, and Glen Tucker, the director of a Brisbane engineering company, have both been jailed for secret commissions offences following a CCC investigation.
In his role at Etheridge Shire Council, Samarasekera was responsible for the appointment of contractors, the calling of tenders, and the appointment and allocation of engineering-related work. Samarasekera and Tucker were personal friends, a fact that Samarasekera failed to disclose to his employer.
The CCC investigation showed that between September 2013 and December 2016, Samarasekera corruptly obtained for his wife 79 payments totalling just over $120,000 from Tucker’s company, Green Tech Pty Ltd. The payments to his wife were in exchange for Samarasekera ensuring the Council entered into a contract with Green Tech worth just over $1 million.
They were both charged in September 2017 following a CCC investigation named Operation Acrid in which Samarasekera and Tucker were targets.
Between 2016 and 2017, the CCC’s investigation used various investigation methodologies including telephone interception, search warrants, notices to produce documents, and financial analysis to investigate the allegations of the corrupt arrangement between Samarasekera and Tucker.
On 29 March 2021, Samarasekera pleaded guilty in the Cairns District Court to receiving secret commissions, and was sentenced to five years imprisonment, suspended after 20 months, with an operational period of five years.
On 6 May 2021, Tucker pleaded guilty in the Brisbane District Court to paying secret commissions.
On 23 August 2021, he was sentenced to three years imprisonment, suspended after nine months, with an operational period of five years.
