Former deputy Premier Derrick Burgess has reiterated to the Commission of Inquiry that he did not know that “friends and family” of his and Ewart Brown had acquired interests in a company awarded a $70 million government contract.

Mr Burgess has submitted a further sworn witness statement to the independent tribunal after the last public hearing was told by commission lawyer Narinder Hargun that fresh evidence showed answers he previously gave under oath could not have been honest.

The evidence referred to was documents from HSBC relating to the company LLC, formerly called Landmark Lisgar, which built the Dame Lois Browne-Evans police and court building.

The bank records showed that lawyer Julian Hall was present, on behalf of public works minister Mr Burgess, at a meeting with HSBC on November 21, 2008 when arrangements were finalised for Winters Burgess and Vincent Hollinsid to acquire an interest in LLC.

Mr Burgess has described Winters Burgess as a close friend and relative, while Mr Hollinsid is the half-brother of former Premier Dr Brown.

Mr Hargun told the commission on December 1 that Mr Hall’s presence at the meeting suggested that Derrick Burgess did know about Winters Burgess and Vincent Hollinsid acquiring interests in the company and should have told Cabinet.

“Mr Burgess never advised the Cabinet of this and these men were not complete strangers; they were friends and family of the minister and the Premier,” said the lawyer.

“In these circumstances, we say that the evidence that Mr Burgess gave when he was here last time has to be looked at very carefully in light of these documents. The evidence he gave on October 6 is not consistent with these documents.”

Landmark Lisgar was awarded the Dame Lois Browne-Evans contract when Dennis Lister was Public Works Minister at the end of 2007. A second contract was negotiated a year later, with LLC, when Derrick Burgess had taken over the portfolio.

In his latest statement, Mr Burgess said it was “highly unlikely” that he knew about the November 21, 2008 meeting. “I would have left all this to the PS [permanent secretary] Bob Horton, in whom I had complete trust,” he said. He said neither he nor Mr Horton attended the meeting and Mr Hall was likely there to “give some comfort to the bank as to the arrangements for the new contract before they were about to extend further financial facilities to LLC”.

Mr Burgess said: “I reiterate this was none of my business; I was only interested in the continued viability of the company to carry out its obligations under the terms of the contract.”

In reference to a separate document, recommending that LLC be awarded a later contract to fit-out Veritas Place on Court Street for police high command, Mr Burgess noted that Winters Burgess was named as a principal in the company.

“I am not entirely sure what ‘principal’ actually means,” he states. “But I can say that from 2009 whenever I visited the site at the new court building he was always there in a managerial role.”

Mr Burgess said he “remained wholly unaware” of Mr Hollinsid’s “apparent arrangements” with business partners Edmund Lee Matvey and Arthur Bryan McLeod, who set up Landmark Lisgar. The PLP MP said he was still unaware of those arrangements — in respect of Mr Hollinsid and Winters Burgess — until he was questioned at a commission hearing in October. He said there came a point when he discovered that Mr Hollinsid had an interest, though he could not say when that was.

The commission — tasked by Michael Dunkley, the Premier, with investigating the misuse of public funds from 2009 to 2012 — has until the end of the year to deliver its findings.

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