Former minister Rob Stokes fronts corruption inquiry into sacked CEO of School Infrastructure NSW
Gladys Berejiklian’s education minister Rob Stokes has appeared before the ICAC, as it probes wallet-fattening contracts dished out to a former top bureaucrat’s mates.
NSW
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A former senior Coalition minister has fronted a corruption inquiry into one of his own top bureaucrats, over claims the Department of Education chief fattened the wallets of his yoga buddies with more than $12 million taxpayer dollars.
Rob Stokes, education minister under the Berejiklian government, has been among the first to testify to an Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) inquiry into the actions of School Infrastructure NSW CEO Anthony Manning, over allegations he improperly awarded contracts to friends and business associates on multiple occasions.
Manning, who was sacked from the Education Department’s school planning, construction and maintenance arm in February 2024, allegedly hand-picked a number of former colleagues from the consulting sector for plum gigs at his new agency ICAC’s lawyers claimed.
He had also been indirectly involved in several other multimillion-dollar contracts according to counsel assisting the Commission.
The ICAC will probe the circumstances in which SINSW, under Manning’s leadership, paid out more than $12.28 million to members of his breakfast club and cycling group – or the consultancy and project management firms they ran – at times in lieu of proper procurement processes and with Manning “at no stage” declaring his relationships with any of the men.
In his opening statement to the public inquiry, counsel assisting Jamie Darams SC tendered evidence that Manning’s ‘Tom Dick and Harry Breakfast Club’ included mates from his days at construction and infrastructure consulting firm Turner & Townsend, including a man whose own consultancy company – Heathwest Advisory – would be paid over $3 million over the course of four years and nine separate engagements at SINSW.
Meanwhile Manning’s yoga buddy and former Health Infrastructure NSW colleague Stuart Suthern-Brunt is also under the ICAC’s microscope, after his two consulting firms were awarded multiple SINSW contracts.
The inquiry heard one of Suthern-Brunt’s companies was involved in the APP Group consortium which was initially awarded a $39 million contract to co-ordinate the mass manufacturing of schools last year, only for that contract to be withdrawn due to “inadequate evidence” that it would achieve its stated aims at a $5 million cost to taxpayers.
The inquiry also heard Robert Rust, who would later become the chair of SINSW’s oversight body, the School Infrastructure Advisory Council on a $262,000 salary also joined Manning and Suthern-Brunt in the cycling crew, with the three alleged to have “discussed the possibility of undertaking a private business venture together” immediately prior to Manning’s appointment.
Stokes, whose first major reform as education minister was establishing School Infrastructure NSW, testified that he had been unaware of the cycling group prior to giving a voluntary statement to ICAC in recent weeks.
“If that (relationship) wasn’t identified or declared anywhere, would that give you any cause for concern?” Mr Darams queried.
“I think it should’ve been disclosed, if it wasn’t,” Stokes replied, stammering his response before pinching the bridge of his nose.
ICAC’s Operation Landan will also probe contracts awarded to big four consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers and Paxon Consulting group, relevant partners for which Manning was “well-acquainted”, and close friend and strategic adviser Kathy Jones whose companies, Mr Darams said, were paid almost $9 million over six years to “perform communications-related work” for SINSW.
For the duration of Manning’s tenure as CEO, SINSW employed more than 1400 “contingent workers” – employees on temporary contracts who “should generally be engaged as a last resort” – at a cost of $344 million, the inquiry heard.
Operation Landan is also investigating whether Manning and his HR adviser “dishonestly exercised their official function by taking reprisal action against certain staff”.
The public inquiry continues on Tuesday with three Department of Education employees scheduled to take to the witness stand, and is expected to continue for up to six weeks.
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