Officialdom Drives A Man To Ruin
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday July 18, 1989
Peter Sayegh is about to lose his house, his business and his partner.
Since May last year, Mr Sayegh, who operates a limousine hire service from Bankstown, has been staging a one-man fight against the NSW Government's decision to award his contract to carry the State's 98 judges and conciliation commissioners between cases and home - to the Federal Government.
Mr Sayegh says that despite the fact he has legal advice that the contract signed with the Commonwealth Government is illegal, the only reason he has been given for the change so far, and it's unofficial, is that the official cars are cheaper.
Canberra is charging the State Government only 60 cents per kilometre - 15 cents less than a taxi and five cents cheaper than Mr Sayegh.
He owes his bank $260,000 at 21.5 per cent interest, and the overdraft hovers at $30,000. He needs an extension, but the bank has said "no more".
Of his assets, two hire car number plates, worth around $140,000 each on the open market, have been rendered worthless because they are only for government work that isn't available.
"How can I compete with the Federal Government cars? No small businessman could. Taxpayers subsidise the drivers' wages, they get the cars and the petrol tax-free."
On Friday, Ms Sandy Mingare, who set up the business with Mr Sayegh, attended her first job interview in five years. Mr Sayegh says he just couldn't afford to keep her on any more, as was the case with the six drivers he has been forced to lay off in recent months.
Since he lost the contract on May 6 last year, the company has been struggling to survive with the handful of jobs that came its way from the Federal Government, he says. Of his fleet of four cars, only two are permitted to carry out non-government work such as weddings and school formals.
"The State Government is sending me broke. I can't do private hire, and they won't give me official work."
The switch from government to private hire would be impossible, says Mr Sayegh. He has never had the need to advertise, and now he can't afford it.
The irony of being deprived of his livelihood by a Government which claims to support small business and private enterprise has not escaped him.
Legal advice obtained from well-placed friends is that the State Government has acted illegally in awarding the contract to the Commonwealth because they are not a party to the State Transport (Co-Ordination) Act.
Support from the judges and commissioners he has driven for five years has been immense. One judge was angry enough to write to the Chief Justice to complain.
His letter, which was passed on to the Premier, read in part: "I will not utilise the services of the intended new contractor. So strongly do I feel about the injustice being done to (Mr Sayegh) that I would prefer to drive myself to and from Parramatta rather than have another contractor gain at(his) expense."
In Mr Sayegh's small rented office are folders fat with the letters and facsimilies that have passed backwards and forwards between departments, politicians and advisers.
The response has ranged from sympathetic to rude to indifferent.
A spokesman for the Minister for Administrative Services, Mr Robert Webster, said that a report on the case was expected to be handed to the minister soon, and that the Crown Solicitor was being consulted for legal advice.
© 1989 Sydney Morning Herald