Former PwC partner fronts corruption inquiry into NSW education infrastructure boss
A former PwC partner says she was ‘never friends’ with ex-NSW education infrastructure boss Anthony Manning who is under investigation by the corruption watchdog.
Former PwC partner Amy Brown says she was “never friends” with former NSW education infrastructure head Anthony Manning, who is under investigation by the corruption watchdog over allegations that he improperly awarded contracts to mates.
Ms Brown would later become CEO of Investment NSW, only to be sacked over the appointment of former deputy premier John Barilaro to a plum New York trade role.
Ms Brown and Mr Manning had known each other from previous work on Northern Beaches Hospital between about 2013 and 2016, while she was the commercial lead at NSW Treasury and he was the project director at NSW Health Infrastructure, before she joined PwC.
She told an Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry into allegations that School Infrastructure NSW CEO Mr Manning “improperly awarded contracts to friends and business associates” and misallocated funds to fund consultancy positions for friends and business associates, that she was “never friends with him”.
He was CEO between June 2017 and early 2024.
Counsel assisting, Jamie Daramas, in his opening remarks last week said “the commission will hear evidence that Mr Manning had previously worked with the responsible partner from PwC and the principal of Paxon during his time at Health Infrastructure, and that within a few months of his appointment, School Infrastructure awarded 40 PwC and Paxon contracts, which in combination were worth millions of dollars.”
At one point on Monday, the inquiry was shown a call log of 75 SMS’s and calls between Mr Manning, Paxon consulting head Michael Palassis, whom Ms Brown described as a friend, and Ms Brown herself, between September 11 and 24, 2017, following a particular school infrastructure tender.
Ms Brown, who is not accused of any wrongdoing, told the inquiry she considered Mr Manning a “business associate” once they had ceased work on the hospital and they would catch up “infrequently” for coffee.
In early 2017, while in her new role as a infrastructure partner at PwC, Ms Brown met then education minister Rob Stokes’s office, and at the end of the meeting made a “passing comment” that if the department set up a special delivery unit for school infrastructure, Mr Manning would be a good choice to head it up, she told the inquiry.
Ms Brown denied she said the department “needed” Mr Manning for the top job, only that he had a “good skill set” to lead a potential new division.
Mr Daramas asked her what involvement she had in Mr Manning’s eventual appointment as CEO of Schools Infrastructure. She said the CEO of School Infrastructure was hired by the secretary of education, with whom she had “no familiarity” and thus had no role in “being able to influence” the outcome.
She did however give Mr Manning’s advice on his CV and went through some questions with him ahead of his interview.
Ms Brown said she was one of the first to know when Mr Manning was hired to the job of School Infrastructure CEO because he had probably thanked her for helping with his CV.
Following his appointment, Ms Brown and other partners at PwC put forward a case to Mr Manning to “work alongside you and the School Infrastructure NSW leadership team as your trusted project partner”, according to a document tendered to the inquiry.
The hearing then went into closed session. It will return on Tuesday.
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