Shire of East Pilbara

Well, Justin, I think it was reading a report by the Corruption and Crime Commission into a particular council and issues there that made me think, when will local government as a whole get this right? This was a report into a person who was employed by one particular council up there in the Pilbara.

And this was the Shire of East Pilbara.

His name was Bevan Klein and Bevan Klein became an operations manager and within two years he managed to funnel about $11 million corruptly of contracts to two mates of his who have companies not in the Pilbara, not even in Western Australia.

One was in Queensland and one was in Victoria.

It feeds $11 million to them, two companies over two.

It just shouldn't be happening.

And you get this response from, you know, when the CCC do a report into the Shire of East Pilbara, for example, you get a response from the Shire of East Pilbara, which says that, you know, good governance is always a work in progress.

I mean, please, that is so trite.

Now, to read more about this story, please visit businessnews.com.au. And finally, a Pilbara shire is putting its hand out for government support to redevelop an airport last week described as the worst in Australia.

The Shire of East Pilbara has planned a $106 million redevelopment of the Newman Airport, for which it has set aside 25 million of its own cash.

Last week, the airport was rated as the worst in Australia by a poll tracking Google reviews.

Shire of East Pilbara President Anthony Middleton said the result of the poll was not a surprise.

Now, to read more about this story, please visit businessnews.com.au. Now, coming up on the podcast, Tom Zornmeyer speaks to Sam Jones about Business News' recent Great Southern publication.

[upbeat music] In today's fast-paced world, full of misinformation and media noise, let Business News, WA's largest, most experienced business and finance reporting team, power you towards clarity and informed insights.

... uh, multi-million dollar contracts and, uh, bene- to the benefit of, of people it turns out that they knew.

Okay, this one here is the Shire of East Pilbara.

They employed a bloke, uh, who came in there as a operations manager.

Mm-hmm.

Um, I can name him because he's been named in the CCC, uh, and that report's now been tabled in Parliament.

Uh, his name is Bevan Klein.

He worked as the operations manager at the Shire of East Pilbara, and, uh, within a short period of time, uh, a cou-

Like a couple years, is it?

And finally, the anti-corruption watchdog has found serious misconduct over almost twelve million dollars of local government spending after an investigation into a shire senior officer.

The Corruption and Crime Commission tabled a report in state parliament on its findings from a probe into the conduct of the Shire of East Pilbara employee.

Former Shire of East Pilbara operations manager Bevan Klein deliberately exploited weaknesses in the local government's procurement processes while engaging contractors the ACCC found.

In its report, the ACCC found Mr. Klein failed to disclose pre-existing relationships with directors of Dick Tracy Contracting Australia, VicFlow and VicFlow Civil, and used his position to favor the companies in exchange for gifts and other benefits.

The ACCC found Mr. Klein issued two hundred and sixty-three purchase orders to Dick Tracy, with the shire paying almost six million dollars to the company.

Yeah, this is the one that Grace just mentioned.

So a bushfire watch and act is still in place in parts of Marble Bar in the Shire of East Pilbara.

So it's for those in the Marble Bar town site, Goonta Binya community, and surrounding areas.

So there is still a possible threat to lives and homes because that fire is still in the area, and conditions are changing too.

So that fire was first reported nine thirty in the evening on Monday night, but it's still a concern.

DFES is the one managing it.

Volunteer firefighters are on site, so are representatives from the Shire of East Pilbara and an emergency response team from Sanjeev Ridge mine site.

But the fire conditions are expected to intensify this afternoon.