It has been many months since we fired up the Whistleblowers section on Crikey but we appear to have a genuine concerned insider blowing hard about the disaster that is the NSW electricity industry.

The NSW media deserves much of the blame for the lack of pressure on Carr. As chief of staff at the Daily Telegraph during the last state election, I reckon we badly failed our readers by not probing Carr’s financial management all. Telegraph boss Col Allan is a mate of Carr’s and did the opposition absolutely no favours at during that election by starving them of oxygen.

Anyway, a whistleblower in the NSW electricity has sent through this anonymous contribution and I would urge you all to read it.

Financial mismanagement on a grand scale

By Crikey’s power industry whistleblower

I have just recently been alerted to your website. I have for some time attempted to pursue this matter with the management and owners of Integral Energy to no end. The story that I have relates to gross mismanagement to a value of $200m that was not denied by the now current CEO Mr. Richard Powis before a Standing Committee of the NSW Upper House.

The story that relates to this offensive conduct begins in 1997 with management at Integral under the leadership (?) of Alex Walker bringing all of the available incompetence to bear on a newly de-regulated Electricity Market. Senior Management were alerted as to the most likely outcome of decision they had taken but continued on like the Titanic.

The scale of mismanagement pales into insignificance when compared to the lying, deceit and illegal activities of the Senior Management to cover the whole story up. Mr. Duncan Gay MLC spent 1 hour on his feet in the reply to the Treasurer’s Budget detailing allegations that I can assure you can be quite easily proven.

The entire saga of the machinations of the Electricity Market and the political acrobatics of the NSW Carr government is quite horrific in its extent. How the Opposition cannot convert the following into serious match winning goals is quite beyond me.

1.$200m loss by Integral Energy

2.$650m loss in litigation by Pacific Power and Powercor

3.$420m loss by energy Australia in the Redbank project

4.Losses yet to be established in the NSW Grains Council

There are another few that can be added to the list but you get the picture. No accountability…no oversight.

The wanton waste continues despite the protestations of the Treasurer. He has yet to discover that the people that he has appointed to run the NSW Electricity Market dudded the Queensland Government to the tune of $500m and were thrown out as soon as Beatty came to power. Not only did they waste $500m of the taxpayers money but they also extracted fees from the Government blown out from $3.4m to $5.2m for the honour. I think we would all like a job like that.

So what does the NSW Treasurer do…he immediately hires these people in NSW for the fee of $5.6m and guess what…….the price has now blown out to $8.2m…..is this beginning to sound familiar? The Treasury has now asked the market participants to fund this money.

Not to mention the Consultants fees which at Integral Energy have yielded $15m per year (not counting the EDS contract) to the major consulting firms. The names appear in Mr. Gay’s speech.

There is much……. much more.

I have been quite appalled at how this story has been ignored by the press. I understand that this is quite a technical issue but the bottom line is still $$$$$$. A lot of $$$$$$$$.

Just from the four issues above the cost is $1.25bn

Thats a lot of Schools, Hospitals and Law and Order that the Carr Government claims that they don’t have.

The truth deserves to be revealed. There are a number of us who are quite prepared to provide the information to have the story told. Only a concerted effort on the part of the press, politicians and the will of the people with the knowledge will make this happen. It is a far bigger story than just electricity and MUST be told.

If you wish to know the rest please forward a response.

Regards, Concerned Taxpayer.