Queensland’s building watchdog was warned almost a year before a major building company went bust owing $45m that it was going to the wall but allowed it to keep its licence.
Glen Norris October 21, 2021 - 1:53PM The Australian Business Network
The Queensland Building and Construction Commission was warned by a former executive of Cullen Group Australia that the company was trading insolvent but took no action to pull its licence, a court has heard.
A public examination in the Federal Court into the $45m collapse of Cullen in December 2016 heard that the watchdog‘s senior investigator Natasha Dennis was contacted in February by former chief financial officer Joel Pickering warning the company was in serious financial trouble.
The QBCC took no action against Cullen even giving it a clean bill of health financially and allowing it to rack up millions more in debt before it collapsed 10 months later.
In an email, Mr Pickering told Ms Dennis, a QBCC official with almost 30 years’ experience, that the company was trading insolvent, was not being diligent in reporting financial information to the watchdog and believed “they could get away with it.”
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