A SENIOR fire brigades executive conceded yesterday that he should not have authorised payment of more than $1 million for a fire station project that had been taken up by a project manager who had later been shown to have deceived the fire brigades.

Phil Clark, director of logistic support for the NSW Fire Brigades, said he had authorised payment of $1,031,800 for a project at West Wallsend because he wrongly assumed that as the total budget for the project had already been approved, he was authorised to pay amounts such as that. His actual limit for capital works approvals was $250,000.

He had had no idea that Christian Sanhueza, engaged as a project manager along with Clive Taylor, was manipulating the system, nor that $1,031,800 was going to a company controlled by Mr Sanhueza.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption, headed by Jerrold Cripps, QC, is inquiring into the activities of Mr Sanhueza and Mr Taylor who in 2005-07 took an estimated $2.5 million from the fire brigades by deception.

The commission has heard that in another project, in Bourke, Mr Sanhueza and Mr Taylor, knowing what the budget allocation was, arranged winning tender prices just under the allocation.

The inquiry has concluded its hearings.

Malcolm Brown