Vic; Ambulance contract critic was working for the competition

AAP General News (Australia)
04-14-2000
Vic; Ambulance contract critic was working for the competition

MELBOURNE, April 14 AAP - A former Melbourne ambulance service worker who made damaging
claims about the Intergraph company did so while working for a competitor, an inquiry
was told today.

Former Metropolitan Ambulance Service (MAS) IT manager Sam Fodero was a central figure
in the accusations of impropriety which led to the Victorian Auditor-General calling for
a judicial investigation into the privatising of communications at the service.

Mr Fodero told a state audit service investigator in 1996 that the tender process for
the contracting out of MAS communications was tampered with to improve Intergraph's standing
in the final shortlist of bidders.

But the MAS Royal Commission heard today that when he made the claim Mr Fodero was
working for an arm of Telstra that was in direct competition with Intergraph.

Under cross-examination by MAS counsel, Peter Clark today, Mr Fodero said he left the
ambulance service and joined Telstra in 1994, where he continued to work until 1998.

While at Telstra he contributed to three bids the telecommunications giant made to
supply computer-aided despatch (CAD) systems, competing against Intergraph, two of which
the latter won.

Within three months of leaving MAS Mr Fodero was working on a Telstra bid to supply
a computerised communications network called BEST for all Victoria's emergency services.

Partly as a result of already having the ambulance work, Intergraph won this statewide
contract as well - a deal worth $122 million.

One of his last duties at MAS was to help assess the applications by companies vying
for the ambulance communications contract in October 1993.

Mr Fodero has told investigators his assessment team was ordered to remove key criteria
from a report evaluating the performance of the three shortlisted bidders in which Intergraph
had done badly.

"My view was that it was not a level playing field," Mr Fodero told the Royal Commission today.

However, he said no-one appeared to have broken the law during the tender process.

"But due process had not been followed."

Mr Clark questioned the purity of Mr Fodero's motive in wanting Intergraph's reputation
sullied when he was employed by a competitor.

"It would have been advantageous to Telstra if Intergraph was seen as not a suitable
candidate," he told the commission.

"If Intergraph's contract (with MAS) was floundering ... and they were put out of the
race for one reason or another, that would have been to the advantage of Telstra, would
it not?" Mr Clark asked Mr Fodero.

Mr Fodero denied using any knowledge he gained during his time at MAS in an unethical
manner to damage business competitors.

The Royal Commission, which has been ordered to investigate whether anyone broke the
law or behaved improperly during the contracting out of the MAS communications system,
later adjourned to a date to be fixed.

Commissioner Lex Lasry, QC, said it would not reconvene before May 8.

AAP ra/mh/cjh/

KEYWORD: INTERGRAPH (CARRIED EARLIER)

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