Two Canberra men have been found guilty of conspiring to manipulate recruitment processes for IT staff in the Department of Finance. 

Forty-nine-year-old public servant Abdul 'Alex' El-Debel and 38-year-old recruitment contractor Raminder Kahlon were accused of conspiring to dishonestly obtain a benefit from the Commonwealth, with a third recruitment contractor. 

The case involved two companies - New Horizons, owned by Kahlon, and ALGORAM, owned by the third man.

The jury in the case was tasked with determining if there was an agreement to do something dishonest, and that at least one of those accused had taken a step to carry that out.

“You must be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that [the third man], Kahlon and El-Debel agreed that pursuant to the agreement between them that a portion of the share of the margins received by New Horizons and ALGORAM would be paid to Mr El-Debel,” Justice Michal Elkhaim told the jury.

The conspiracy was alleged to have continued between March 2019 and June 2020. More details are available here.