File No. 2026-006 - The Man With the Perfect CV

Every scandal begins with a warning that was ignored.

The first time he lied his way into a public sector job, nobody caught him. Nor the second. Or the third. Or the fourth. Or the fifth. Or the sixth. Six job applications. Four public sector organisations.

By the time the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption finally put the pieces together, Zoran Ribicic had spent more than a decade using false or misleading qualifications, employment history and references to secure positions in the public sector.

Amongst his false claims were a doctorate of business administration, a master's in project management, a bachelor's degree in engineering, a TAFE engineering diploma, and false references.

They all believed him - Transport for NSW, Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District, Port Authority of NSW and Penrith City Council. Four public sector organisations. Six opportunities to check. None detected his deception before employing him.

In 2021, he moved into a senior role at the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District (the Health District), as Director of Engineering and Asset Management.

Now he had something more valuable than a job title. He had authority. And access to public money.

CUE HIS SISTER

In 2022, the Health District began using a company called Risk Control Consulting. The company belonged to Ribicic's sister. He didn't declare the relationship.

ICAC found he managed the engagement and approval process, deliberately hid the conflict, and improperly favoured the company over potential competitors. Over the next two years, his sister’s company received more than $275,000 from the Health District.

But there was another problem.

Ribicic could approve quotes of up to $30,000 without requiring competing quotes. So bigger jobs started to be broken into smaller ones.

ICAC found that he asked favoured suppliers to break much larger bodies of work into smaller bundles below that limit. So work that should have faced more competition and more scrutiny, wasn't.

ICAC found that he improperly awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars of public money to contractors this way, including his sister’s company.

The rules were still there. They were simply being worked around.

And then investigators found something else.

THE SECOND JOB

While working full-time in his senior Health District role, Ribicic was also working for a private company.

He did not declare the secondary employment. He did not obtain the required approval.

And this wasn't a company that had nothing to do with his public sector work. He had previously brought the company into the Health District as a consultant.

Over ten months, his secondary employer paid him $210,375.

The story had moved well beyond a dodgy CV. It now involved false qualifications, false references, six applications to four public sector organisations, the senior position at the Health District, the undisclosed family connection, the contracts split below the procurement threshold the favoured suppliers, the undisclosed second job, and hundreds of thousands of dollars of public money awarded without proper competition.

WHO RAISED THE ALARM?

In July 2024, an officer at the Health District reported Ribicic to ICAC for the undisclosed conflicts of interest and the secondary employment.

He was subsequently suspended, then resigned in September 2024.

In July 2025, he started a new job at Transport for NSW.

ICAC found his application for that job contained false qualifications and two false references. His employment ended there in January 2026.

THE PART THAT SHOULD MAKE EVERY ORGANISATION UNCOMFORTABLE

The first warning sign wasn't the $275,000 paid to his sister. It wasn't the procurement manipulation. It wasn't the second job. It was much earlier.

Someone said, "I have this qualification" on their CV - and nobody checked.

During the ICAC investigation, the educational institutions concerned confirmed that he did not attain the claimed qualification from their institutions.

Then someone provided a reference. And nobody checked that properly either.

One came from a friend, using a job title he did not hold, at Ribicic’s request. The other was made out to be from a senior health district executive, who told ICAC that she never provided it. Ribicic later admitted that he completed it himself.

The pattern continued for years.

ICAC found that Ribicic's false qualifications were used to obtain multiple public sector positions between 2012 and 2025. In relation to six employment applications, the Commission said consideration should be given to obtaining advice from the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions about possible fraud offences.

Operation Tivoli isn't really a story about one person who lied on his CV. It's a story about what can happen when a lie survives the first checkpoint. And then the next one. And the next. Eventually, the person isn't just inside the organisation. They're trusted. They're approving things. They're choosing suppliers. They're managing money.

They're making decisions that affect the organisation and the people it serves.

THE LIFT LESSON

Most organisations have recruitment policies.

Most have conflict-of-interest policies.

Most have procurement rules.

Most have rules about secondary employment.

But the existence of the policy isn't the control. The control is what happens when someone actually tests it.

Qualifications need to be verified. References need to be checked. Conflicts need to be disclosed. Procurement patterns need to be watched.

And when the same person keeps appearing around the same suppliers, the same contracts and the same decisions, someone needs to ask why.

Because corruption doesn't always begin with someone stealing money.

Sometimes it begins with a CV.

And the first warning sign may be the one nobody thought was worth checking.

Source: NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption, Operation Tivoli, published 28 August 2026.