V/Line

V/Line chief executive officer James Pinder allegedly received $320,000 in payments from a cleaning contractor over several months, and communicated with the cleaning company’s boss through ‘secretive’ disposable phones.

Operation Esperance has been looking into corruption allegations regarding the tendering, procurement and management of contracts within V/Line and Metro.

More than 55 charges have been laid against four people in the VET sector as part of Operation Lansdowne; one of the individuals was a former public sector employee, and the remaining three were associated with an external provider.

The commission has launched an investigation into V/Line chief executive officer James Pinder, prompting his suspension.

A $2.2 million vocational training “scam” occurred thanks to a lack of oversight by the TAFEs outsourcing the work, Victoria’s anti-corruption agency has found.

A 13-day corruption inquiry into alleged false vocational education enrolments and improper hiring practices has wrapped up in Melbourne, putting on display a series of failings across several public institutions.

Former CEO of V/Line Theo Taifalos instructed staff not to pursue background checks into the qualifications and police record of a recently-hired senior manager he had “actively recruited”, who was being paid double that of his predecessor, an ongoing anti-corruption inquiry has heard.

An IBAC anti-corruption inquiry has heard that the mother and daughter at the centre of an alleged vocational training scam referred to students as “sausages” to go through the “sausage machine”. David Donaldson reports from the hearings.