ACT Integrity Commission hearings into Campbell Primary School procurement process begin

ACT Integrity Commission is expected to publish a witness list each morning before it conducts the first ever public hearings on August 10 and 11 as part of Operation Kingfisher.

The investigation is examining whether public officials in the directorate failed to exercise their official functions honestly and/or impartially when making recommendations and decisions about the Campbell Primary School modernisation project from 2019 to 2020.

ACT Integrity Commissioner Michael Adams has issued a suppression order to prevent the publication of the name and identity of one of the witnesses, who will be known by the pseudonym John Green.

The hearings will be live streamed on the commission's website and further public examinations are expected in September.

Education Minister Yvette Berry declined to comment when asked if she was concerned the hearings would reveal corruption in the ACT public service.

"I can't really comment on that because it is an ongoing process," Ms Berry said on Friday.

"Obviously, the government supports the role of the Integrity Commission and we'll be watching closely and paying attention to any outcomes that come from that."

In December 2021, the ACT Auditor-General found a delegate for the Education Directorate, the acting executive group manager of the business services division, effectively re-weighted and re-prioritised the evaluation criteria when making a recommendation on the preferred tenderer for the building contract.

Manteena quoted a lower price and outscored Lendlease based on the criteria in three reports conducted by two different tender evaluation teams.

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But in the initial evaluation in June 2020, the delegate recommended to director-general Katy Haire that Lendlease be the preferred tenderer because they offered the "best value for money" and the three criteria that it scored highly on were "reliable long term indicators of a company's ability to deliver quality projects and government initiatives such as Secure Local Jobs."

"There was inadequate documentation to support the recommendation to enter into a contract with Lendlease, as opposed to Manteena," the Auditor-General's report said.

In February 2021, the delegate said the protracted procurement process led to risks for the delivery of the project and Lendlease was in a better position to handle these risks due to "long term factors".

The delegate said knowledge and experience from their previous role as the Secure Local Jobs Code Registrar between November 2018 and January 2020 had influenced their decision.

All businesses who do work for the ACT government in construction, cleaning, security, traffic management and services are required to have a Secure Local Jobs code certification. It's administered by an advisory board which includes union representatives.

In February 2022, Mr Adams called for businesses which have tendered for government contract where they suspect corrupt conduct had occurred to come forward.

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