The office of disgraced Victorian Labor powerbroker Adem Somyurek misappropriated up to $14,000 and paid his father for cleaning services never provided, an anti-corruption inquiry has heard.
Former staffer Adam Sullivan told the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission he spent up to $14,000 from Mr Somyurek's electorate office budget on stamps used in Mordialloc MP Tim Richardson's 2018 re-election campaign.
Mr Sullivan said he was told by another staffer, Nick McLennan, in early 2018 to start purchasing stamps from the office budget, which was meant for non-political purposes.
"What actually would occur was those stamps would then be rerouted and distributed to Tim Richardson's re-election campaign in Mordialloc," he told the inquiry on Wednesday.
"It was suggested that the purchase of these stamps take place in increments, nothing that would be conspicuous to the department of parliamentary services.
"At the end of that process personally, I purchased around $11,000 or $14,000 worth of stamps."
Mr Sullivan said although Mr Somyurek didn't directly ask him to purchase the stamps, it "didn't seem like it was the sort of thing that would be frowned upon" by the MP, because of other behaviour in the office.
This included paying Mr Somyruek's father for cleaning services that Mr Sullivan said were not provided.
He described the office as "decrepit ", "rundown" and "complete with cobwebs".
"I just took it upon myself in those early weeks and months in my employment in Mr Somyurek's (office) to try and reorder the place, reorder the stationery cupboard, as I said vacuum, polish the table," Mr Sullivan said.
"There were also cockroaches in the kitchen when I first arrived there so I made sure we got an exterminator to solve that problem."
Mr Sullivan said he never saw anyone clean the office other than himself, and it was not normal practice for family members of the MP or of factional allies to be employed in electorate offices.
Prior to working as an electorate officer for Mr Somyurek, Mr Sullivan worked for his moderate faction ally, federal MP Anthony Byrne.
He said during his time in Mr Byrne's office he would handle "wads of cash", given to him by MPs and aspiring MPs to pay for or renew other people's Labor memberships.
These memberships helped the faction gain influence in Melbourne's southeast and to ensure their preferred candidates were preselected.
The practice, known as branch stacking, is not illegal but is against Labor party rules.
IBAC is investigating whether public funds were used for such work.
Mr Sullivan's testimony comes a day after Mr Somyurek's former executive assistant Ellen Schreiber told the inquiry she did factional work during office hours.
Ms Schrieber said she had not been asked to do so when she first joined the office in January 2019, but by June and July that year "80 per cent" of her time involved dealing with ALP memberships and factional work.
