IBAC to probe failed Victorian schools computer project Ultranet

A DISASTROUS computer project that cost the Department of Education and Training $180 million is now the focus of a new IBAC investigation.

A DISASTROUS computer project that cost the Department of Education and Training $180 million is now the focus of a new IBAC investigation.

The Independent Broadbased Anti-Corruption Commission announced this morning that it will hold hearings in February into the failed Ultranet project.

The “Operation Dunham” hearings will examine allegations of “serious corruption” at the department.

The commission also announced that it has put on hold a report into corruption allegations surrounding disgraced former senior education department officer Nino Napoli until Operation Dunham is complete.

Mr Napoli and others were accused of exploiting a “banker school” financial system to extract about $2 million of government funds for personal gain.

During the Napoli hearings it emerged in evidence that Darrell Fraser, a key proponent of Ultranet, a former department deputy secretary and past principal of Glen Waverley Secondary College, was alleged to have used banker schools to fund staff parties.

He was also accused of trying to choke whistleblower Stephen Brown.

At the centre of the Ultranet investigation is whether current or former department staff, family members, personal or business associates held shares in CSG, the company that won the Ultranet contract in consortium with computer giant Oracle and whether those shares were owned before the contract was awarded.

Ultranet aimed to provide parents with fortnightly updates on their child’s progress instead of waiting until official end-of-term reports.

The original four-year contract was a Labor government initiative. When it was announced in 2006 it was to have cost $60.5 million, but costs ballooned.

In 2013 education officials scrapped the hi-tech Ultranet system after it was barely used by schools.

The hearings will examine:

• How contracts around the online learning portal were tendered and awarded

• Personal and business connections between department employees and businesses involved in the Ultranet project

• Whether current or former department employees released confidential information, or used their position to influence procurement processes

• Whether department employees received payments, gifts, travel, employment opportunities or other benefits because they were involved in the Ultranet tender or procurement processes

• Department procurement and conflict of interest processes, and organisational culture.

It will also look at how the department procured and engaged external service providers and managed tenders for major projects, and monitoring of conflicts of interest.