The Corruption and Crime Commission has tabled in State Parliament a report detailing how Australia’s biggest corruption by a public servant was uncovered.
The report relates to the behaviour of Mr Paul Whyte, who has pleaded guilty to 564 charges of corruption and money laundering and is to be sentenced in the Supreme Court. The report's real focus is how the corruption was exposed and the chain of inquiry set in motion by a single piece of information.
The Commission’s report reveals how information it received in 2018 was enough to raise questions about Mr Whyte’s behavioural and lifestyle habits. The subject of apparently simple information, Mr Paul Whyte was a very senior public officer who held a position of considerable influence and oversaw large-scale government procurement, so the Commission believed it important to look further into his lifestyle and his finances.