By Lucy Carroll
The former boss of the NSW government’s school building unit approved a cycling friend for a $2800-a-day contract job as an executive at the agency without declaring a conflict of interest over their relationship, the anti-corruption watchdog has heard.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption is holding a public inquiry into the conduct of Anthony Manning, who led the School Infrastructure unit from 2017 until last year.
The inquiry, now in its fifth week, heard on Monday from Stuart Suthern-Brunt, a long-time friend and colleague of Manning.
Stuart Suthern-Brunt arrives at the ICAC on Monday.Credit: Kate Geraghty
In late 2019, when Suthern-Brunt was five months into his contract as acting executive director of infrastructure planning, he told his business partner the state’s school building unit had “turned into a clown show”.
“It’s all going pear-shaped at SINSW! Anthony’s had to go back to the UK again, his dad’s had a turn for the worse. It’s now turned into a clown show. I can’t think of a better way to describe it,” Suthern-Brunt wrote in an email shown at the inquiry.
Suthern-Brunt was engaged as a contractor for the school building agency through Capricorn Infrastructure, of which he was director with his business partner Dougal Spork.
During his evidence, Suthern-Brunt said the comments referred to his concerns about the scale of the state government’s school building work in the pipeline, and that he was questioning the capability of Erik Maranik, who was acting head when Manning was away.
“It was a difficult environment to work,” Suthern-Brunt told the inquiry. “Decisions that had been made perhaps under Mr Manning’s watch were then being changed under Mr Maranik’s watch. And the implications for that were quite significant.”
Early in the day, counsel assisting Jamie Darams, SC, charted the extensive history between Manning and Suthern-Brunt, from when they met in about 2007 to working together at Health Infrastructure.
Darams outlined Suthern-Brunt’s CV, which showed he was project director on the Royal North Shore Hospital development, Sydney Metro north-west and that he had worked on public-private partnerships.
The inquiry was shown detailed text messages and emails outlining the pair’s numerous social arrangements from about 2017 to 2019, including morning cycling sessions, yoga, breakfasts, dinners, a beer and curry night and a buck’s party.
Suthern-Brunt invited Manning to his daughter’s 21st birthday party and the pair discussed jewellery as a gift.
Stuart Suthern-Brunt was acting executive director at School Infrastructure NSW.Credit:
The inquiry also heard that in 2018, Suthern-Brunt attended Manning’s birthday dinner at Nilgiri’s in Cremorne. Another building unit contractor, Martin Berry, and Robert Rust, who was chair of the School Infrastructure Advisory Council, also attended the dinner.
The inquiry heard that in May 2019, Manning flagged with Maranik that Suthern-Brunt “would be available” for the role of acting executive director of infrastructure planning at the agency.
Suthern-Brunt got the job and the inquiry has previously heard evidence that Suthern-Brunt was paid $2800 a day, the equivalent of $644,000 a year. An equivalent public service senior executive doing the same job was paid $268,300 to $337,000. In total, more than $1.7 million was paid to Suthern-Brunt’s companies over about 2½ years.
The inquiry had previously heard Suthern-Brunt’s engagement as acting executive director had been initiated and approved by Manning.
“Mr Manning did not declare any conflict of interest arising out of his relationship or interactions with Mr Suthern-Brunt until about 10 August 2020, by which time Mr Suthern-Brunt’s acting executive director engagement had ended,” the inquiry heard last month.
The inquiry heard on Monday that Suthern-Brunt under his company Capricorn was brought on in June 2019 as acting executive director initially under a 48-day engagement, but there were at least three variations to the contract through to the start of 2020.
He said he was asked to stay on due to the “enormity” of the work involved. “I felt I could help, and I saw it would be hard for someone else to step in at short notice.” He said some of the schools could be “put at risk in terms of opening”.
“What was the risk to the schools?” Darams asked. “Just preparing business cases and getting approval,” Suthern-Brunt replied. “[Manning] said I wasn’t the only one who had complained about operations and the way it was running.”
He said he started in the job before receiving formal documents for the position. “I was asked to utilise the contract that was already on foot,” he told the inquiry.
Suthern-Brunt was also questioned about text messages showing him and Manning in contact in mid-2018 when he was frustrated over his work at Sydney Metro. Shortly afterwards, he drafted a “mini proposal” for a “strategic transaction assessment” contract with the building unit.
Suthern-Brunt described it as a “reverse brief”, when clients know they will need the consultant to do work, but have not defined it. Documents shown at the inquiry show Suthern-Brunt’s rate was $350 an hour, or $2800 a day.
He said the work involved looking at “commercial drivers, key risks, innovation, new technology” for school building work, including canteens and toilet blocks.
In the afternoon, the inquiry heard his company Capricorn Group also proposed doing work for Inner Sydney High School in October 2019.
The inquiry also heard evidence that in 2020 Manning told school building agency senior staff that Suthern-Brunt would be setting up a new “transaction team” that would encompass “planning innovation”, private developer-led proposals and public-private partnerships.
“The team’s responsibility will be to identify, investigate and procure opportunities for innovative forms of structuring and funding infrastructure,” Manning told staff.
Suthern-Brunt’s company later tendered for the “Strategic Team Lead – Innovative Forms of Structuring and Funding”.
These projects would involve schools partnering with private developers and could include mixed-use sites such as schools and shopping centres on the same site, he said.
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