TWO NSW Fire Brigades project managers had used privately operated companies to tender for fire brigade work and abused their position in the fire brigades to submit their own tenders and extract profits of 40 per cent or more, the Independent Commission Against Corruption was told yesterday.

Clive Taylor and Christian Sanhueza had arranged things so that Mr Sanhueza could use his private companies, Midas Capital Works Pty Ltd or Byldcom Pty Ltd, to tender for the fire brigade work, but at far higher price than the quotes they had received from bona fide tenderers.

To make the higher quote look genuine, the two had put in bogus quotes, using non-existent or deregistered company names, and sometimes using fictitious names of individuals. The quotes from these companies had often been even higher than those put in by Mr Sanhueza's companies and as a result Mr Sanhueza's companies had won the contract.

In deals apparently unknown to the fire brigade hierarchy, Mr Sanhueza had subcontracted the original bona fide tenderers to do the actual work. The work being done, Mr Taylor had approved it it and he and Mr Sanhueza had then pocketed the often very large difference between what the fire brigades paid Mr Sanhueza's companies and what they had had to pay to the subcontractor.

The commission, in Operation Mirna, is inquiring whether Mr Sanhueza, Mr Taylor and others had engaged in corrupt conduct in relation to awarding and managing the Fire Brigades capital and maintenance projects.

The hearing, before Commissioner Jerrold Cripps, QC, heard other evidence yesterday that Mr Sanhueza and Mr Taylor had asked an architect, Barrelle Guirguis, to buy them both two Toshiba flat-screen television sets at a total cost of $20,000, and a laptop computer each.