School Infrastructure NSW consultant Lily Wong defends $2000-a-day fee at ICAC inquiry
A School Infrastructure NSW contractor who was paid nearly $2000 a day to provide advice on other contracts has told an ICAC inquiry she was allowed to set her own pay and conditions.
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A School Infrastructure NSW contractor who was paid nearly $2000 a day to provide advice on other contracts has told a corruption inquiry her own hiring was “not good practice”.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption is investigating whether then-CEO of the Department of Education’s infrastructure arm Anthony Manning – and others – improperly awarded contracts worth tens of millions to friends and business associates, and then fired whistleblowers.
On Monday the public inquiry heard testimony from strategic adviser Lily Wong, who was brought on board by Mr Manning shortly after his own appointment in 2017.
Ms Wong, who has previously been providing advisory services to Infrastructure NSW, told the inquiry she had reached out to Mr Manning after one of her managers had recommended her for a role consulting on the procurement process.
“When there was a requirement for resources, I would be providing advice and undertaking the procurement activities related to that,” she said.
“There are times where I may be asked for some suggestions about companies that … might specialise in that area, that I’ve worked with in the past potentially but it was mostly to do with the actual procurement process itself – what strategy to use, going out to market … or direct engagement.”
At her first meeting with Mr Manning over coffees, Ms Wong informed him that her fees would amount to $240 an hour or $1,920 a day, working for the agency three days a week.
The inquiry would later be shown a document Ms Wong herself prepared that set out an “upper limit fee” of $136,000 for a six-month engagement, paid to her through her firm Absolute Infrastructure Management.
“This was a relatively new agency … and there was a lot of work to be done,” she said.
“I assumed that it would be at least six months … I didn’t get the feeling it was a short engagement, as in a few weeks.”
The inquiry was also shown a series of emails between Ms Wong and Mr Manning indicating she had been asked to draft descriptions of her own role to be sent to other departments within the unit.
Questioned about this by council assisting the ICAC Jamie Darams SC, Ms Wong admitted that a third party supplied of services drafting their own briefing for their engagement “would be unusual”.
“It does happen from time to time, it’s not good practice … because the approval to undertake procurement and to engage a supplier or service provider should ideally be done prior to their commencement,” she said.
“Did you understand that, in fact, this process had not been done prior to your engagement?” Mr Darams asked.
“I don’t remember, specifically, that but it’s clear here that he (Mr Manning) has asked me to draft some texts around my engagement.”
The ICAC inquiry previously heard evidence from the Department of Education’s then-“chief procurement officer” Andrea Patrick that Ms Wong had “just turned up out of the blue” and was being paid an “abnormally high” amount.
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