In May 2016, the council handed over almost all its public events and tourism promotion to Moreton Bay Region Industry and Tourism, a private company owned and run by businessman Shane Newcombe, as part of a deal now worth more than $20 million.

The events include the Redcliffe KiteFest, which attracts tens of thousands of paying visitors annually, as well as a range of business and community events. MBRIT also runs the region’s visitor centres, which are staffed by volunteers.

As part of a widening probe into the council, witnesses have told CCC investigators Mr Newcombe boasted to friends in May 2016 he had no doubts the council would give MBRIT the contract because of a $20,000 donation from his mother’s chain of car dealerships to the mayor’s election campaign a few months earlier.

Mr Newcombe is alleged to have claimed he engineered the payment via his mother’s company to disguise his involvement.

A sworn witness statement to the CCC, obtained by Fairfax Media, alleges Mr Newcombe bragged in 2016 he was not worried about the upcoming council vote on the MBRIT deal because the donation had made it a foregone conclusion.

“I’ve got it sorted. I’ve met with the mayor and Corinne (Mulholland, the mayor’s executive officer) and gave $20,000 to the mayor’s campaign,” he is alleged to have said when asked how he thought the vote would go.

Cr Sutherland and Mr Newcombe did not respond to requests for comment. Moreton Bay Regional Council did not respond to or acknowledge detailed questions.

The MBRIT deal, awarded without a public tender despite protests from council managers, was renewed and significantly expanded in controversial circumstances this year, making it worth more than $20 million over five years, the council’s biggest single procurement.

Fairfax Media revealed in September that the council helped Mr Newcombe secure the deal in 2016 by giving him unfettered access to confidential council financial documents. The mayor, chief executive and a small group of councillors, all beneficiaries of the mayor’s political campaign fund, also allegedly secretly briefed Mr Newcombe on how to persuade councillors to award him the contract.

Village Motors, the dealership chain owned by Mr Newcombe’s mother Marlene Newcombe, made a $20,000 donation to Moreton Futures Trust, a fundraising vehicle for Cr Sutherland and a handful of other councillors, just prior to the local elections in March 2016.

The money was channelled via Newcombes Holdings, the company that owns the dealership chain and where Mr Newcombe is a director.

“I’ve set it up so it goes through my Mum’s trust, they won’t know that I’ve done it,” Mr Newcombe is alleged to have told friends, according to the witness statement, adding:

“The mayor and Corinne have this thing called Moreton Futures Trust, don’t worry, the Comiskeys are putting money into it as well.”

Electoral disclosures show local developer and hotel owner Rob Comiskey donated $20,000 to Moreton Futures Trust in 2016 via his company Rio Vista Securities.

Marlene Newcombe told Fairfax Media she had been advised not to comment. Ms Mulholland did not respond to detailed questions.

Fairfax Media has made efforts to contact Mr Comiskey.

In a statement, a CCC spokesman said: “The CCC is investigating allegations of corrupt conduct relating to Moreton Bay Regional Council. As the investigation is ongoing, it is not appropriate to comment. It is important to note all allegations should be treated as unsubstantiated until a final outcome is reached.”

Under the disclosure regime in force in 2016, details of the donations to Moreton Futures Trust were not published until several months after the election.

It is not clear how Mr Newcombe knew of the Rio Vista Securities donation, but he and Mr Comiskey are close associates.

Ms Mulholland, a close associate of both men, took time off from her council job to help run Cr Sutherland’s 2016 election campaign.

She is the endorsed Labor candidate for the federal seat of Petrie and stepped aside from her influential council role last month to focus on political campaigning.

Councillor Peter Flannery, who chairs the council committee responsible for the MBRIT deal, told Fairfax Media earlier this year that Cr Sutherland had reassured him and other councillors prior to the awarding of the initial MBRIT contract in 2016 they need not worry about a conflict based on relationships with Mr Newcombe, “because Shane Newcombe’s business is separate from his mother’s business”.

During the Operation Belcarra hearings into the conduct of the 2016 local elections held at the CCC last year, Cr Sutherland testified he had been “happy not to know” who the donors to Moreton Futures Trust were because “it’s hard to have a conflict when you don’t know who the donor is”.

But he told the hearing: “I knew Newcombe Holdings had put money in there.”

The CCC in July began investigating the circumstances of the May 2018 renewal of the MBRIT deal following a complaint from a ratepayer.

The renewal decision was delegated to council chief executive Daryl Hitzman after seven councillors declared minor conflicts of interest on the basis they were friends of Mr Newcombe, had attended his wedding, or had a friend who had worked for him. No councillors who received donations from Moreton Futures Trust mentioned this at the vote.

The council last month removed all information about the MBRIT deal from its “awarded tenders” website.

This is in spite of Queensland local government regulations requiring councils to publish details of all contracts worth more than $200,000.

The council has provided no explanation as to why the information was taken down.

Since 2016, MBRIT has become closely integrated into council operations. The organisation is mentioned 15 times in the council’s economic development strategy document.

Mr Newcombe also chairs Regional Development Australia Moreton Bay, a federally-funded business liaison body that also features heavily in the council’s economic strategy.

Ms Mulholland declared a staff conflict of interest over the renewal of the MBRIT deal this year on the basis she had been invited to be master of ceremonies at Mr Newcombe’s wedding.

Two weeks before council’s vote on the contract renewal, she recused herself from a review of the service level agreement, the document that sets council’s performance expectations of Mr Newcombe’s company.

Fairfax Media revealed earlier this year that Mr Newcombe had authored the first draft of the original service level agreement in 2016.

The forerunner to the CCC, the Crime and Misconduct Commission, in 2010 cleared Cr Sutherland of allegations he had been gifted his $2.1 million home by a developer.

In 2013, the CMC decided not to act after The Courier-Mail published secret recordings showing Cr Sutherland had conspired with a donor to plant a donation on a political rival in order to discredit him.