NSW Liberal apparatchik Robert Assaf sent sham invoices in his wife’s name to a Reformers-linked company for “kickbacks” and did factional work during office hours at Catholic Schools NSW, including providing daily political updates to the organisation’s boss, Dallas McInerney.

Assaf told the Independent Commission Against Corruption on Friday that once he had finished his tasks at Catholic Schools NSW, he would move on to signing up new members to the Reformers, which he co-founded to recruit right-wing Catholics to the Liberal Party.

“People go online shopping, I do factional work,” Assaf told the commission, adding that some days he would “chuck a sickie” to do work for the Reformers.

Catholic Schools NSW was not his only source of income. The commission heard that fake invoices in the name of Assaf’s wife, Carmel, for work she never did were part of a “tricky” tax scheme rather than dishonesty.

Assaf said the invoices were for referral fees for introducing new clients to Beckington, a Reformer-linked company. Beckington was established in July 2019 by fellow Reformers Christian Ellis and Jeremy Greenwood, with Catholic Schools NSW its first client.

Assaf said there was some confusion about the exact amount he would receive in referral fees, but he believed he would receive 10 per cent of the entire value of a contract. Counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer, SC, described the payments as kickbacks.

Despite setting up the Reformers with Ellis, the commission heard Assaf’s relationship with his co-founder had broken down, and he had warned McInerney that Ellis was “lazy” when Beckington held a contract with Catholic Schools NSW.

“It would have been something like ‘Christian’s a liar, he’s greedy, I don’t trust him, and I’m not sure he’s doing much for you at the moment. Jeremy [Greenwood] seems to be picking up most of the slack. Jeremy’s starting his own company up. You may want to consider going to Jeremy’,” Assaf told the commission.

Assaf also told the commission he knew of the “concept” of illegal donations but never thought the Reformers were doing anything wrong in accepting payments, including from hotelier Michael O’Hara.

The ICAC is probing whether undeclared political donations were made by prohibited donors, including O’Hara, to Beckington. The donations were intended to support the Reformers, but the commission heard they were also used to pay the wage of Beckington employee Dylan Whitelaw.

Whitelaw, who formerly worked at Catholic Schools NSW, was employed by Beckington to largely carry out Reformers work.

Assaf said he was aware of the “concept” of prohibited donors and knew that some donations to political parties needed to be declared over a threshold, but did not think the Reformers were doing anything wrong.

“If someone told me [at] any point before I got my first summons to this, that what I had done was a problem, I would have gone straight to the electoral commission and reported it and sorted it out,” Assaf said.

“I can’t recall any time where we discussed ‘are we doing something wrong?’; we never thought that way.”

Assaf told the commission on Friday that O’Hara paid Beckington, and not the Reformers directly, for tax purposes rather than to hide potentially unlawful political donations.

Commissioner Fabian Gleeson asked Assaf a “straightforward honesty question”.

“I’m asking you to put aside for the moment the question of whether or not it’s appropriate from a tax perspective, do you think it’s honest at the time?” Gleeson asked.

“Did you think it was honest for Beckington to issue an invoice claiming money for consultancy services that it said it was providing Mr O’Hara’s company, when in fact no such consultancy services were being provided, as we understand the evidence?”

Assaf said he would have thought it was “tricky”.

“Why do you have a difficulty, Mr Assaf, in distinguishing between tricky and honest conduct?” Gleeson asked. “Why do you characterise them as merely tricky, but you seem to baulk at the characterisation that it’s dishonest conduct by Beckington?”

Assaf said he was not aware of how problematic it was, and just thought of it as tricky in an accounting sense.

Assaf told the commission that he and other Reformers were “immature and young” and used money from the group as an advance for personal expenditure, which he says they would pay back.

In one case, Reformers cash was used to pay for a buck’s party – either for Assaf or Christian Ellis, although he could not remember which since both men got married about the same time.

Meanwhile, Liberal Leader Kellie Sloane will stand by frontbencher Chris Rath after revelations he used confidential briefings to help party apparatchiks, including Ellis, avoid being called before a parliamentary inquiry.

In a statement released on Friday afternoon, Sloane said she expressed her disappointment after speaking with Rath. However, she noted the matter was four years old and Rath received an official caution at the time.

The Herald revealed wiretaps captured Rath, the shadow minister for planning and the arts, tipping off members of the Reformers about the location of process servers during an upper house inquiry probing allegations of branch stacking in The Hills Shire Council in 2022.

Assaf returns for further questioning on Monday. Senior right-wing MP Damien Tudehope, who has featured heavily in evidence this week through his role in backing the religious group the Reformers, is also due to appear before the commission on Monday.

Tudehope has stood aside from Sloane’s frontbench while the inquiry is under way because of his ties to many of the witnesses. He has denied any wrongdoing and is not a person of interest.

On Tuesday, businessman Frits Mare will appear. Mare gave explosive evidence to the 2023 parliamentary inquiry into branch stacking in The Hills Shire Council.

That inquiry heard Jean-Claude Perrottet and Christian Ellis, both persons of interest in this ICAC inquiry, asked Mare for $50,000 to fund a branch operation to unseat Scott Morrison’s right-hand man Alex Hawke from his federal electorate. Mare wanted no part in their scheme.

The bulk of the week will then be spent hearing from Perrottet, who was a key member of the Reformers. The inquiry heard this week that Perrottet paid for branch memberships and also wanted to be paid for his work stacking branches.