Ausgrid worker to return to ICAC

A former Ausgrid worker who accepted $8000 worth of gifts in the form of a marble bath and toilets from a contractor vying for excavation and cable-laying work will return to ICAC on Friday.

Phillip Cresnar has already appeared at the NSW corruption watchdog to answer allegations he received more than $300,000 in kickbacks from contractors vying for excavation and cable-laying work between 2008 and 2014.

In a phone call played to the inquiry on Thursday, Mr Cresnar was recorded telling one contractor, Denis Twomey, that a rival was "actually slightly cheaper" but that he had "fudged the figures" in his favour.

Mr Cresnar said he did not remember what the call was about and suggested he might have been lying to Mr Twomey.

In return for favourable treatment, it's alleged Mr Twomey and his company, Murray Civil Constructions, bankrolled tens of thousands of dollars worth of renovations to Mr Cresnar's inner-Sydney home between 2012 and 2013.

Murray Civil later scored $26 million in Ausgrid contracts between 2011 and 2013.

Mr Cresnar denied the gifts were kickbacks, instead claiming some were given in return for 10-15 decorative jugs valued as high as $2000 apiece.