ICAC flags risks of Sydney International Equestrian Centre corruption

An ICAC probe into perceived conflicts of interest over the tender process used to carry out a $1m upgrade of the Sydney International Equestrian Centre raised eight ‘corruption risks’.

A dressage event at the Sydney Equestrian Centre. Picture: Chris McKeen

An ICAC probe into perceived conflicts of interest over the $1m upgrade of the Sydney Inter­national Equestrian Centre raised eight “corruption risks” regarding the tender process used to award taxpayer funds to a company linked to the son of Equestrian NSW’s president.

The corruption watchdog wrote to the Office of Sport in December last year to warn them that while the commission had determined it would not formally investigate the matter given the “lack of viable lines of inquiry”, it had identified several corruption risks.

One risk included Equestrian NSW chief Bruce Farrar “appearing to have been afforded a significant amount of involvement” in the tender process.

NSW ICAC assessments manager Andrew Garcia said Mr Farrar’s decision to approach the successful contractor, Barrie Smith Motor Sport, prior to the public release of the tender to obtain a funding estimate to include in ENSW’s funding proposal had raised a red flag.

“This could be perceived as a tenderer with links to ENSW being given advance notice of the tender and scope,” Mr Garcia wrote. “It is of some concern that the Office of Sport was ‘unable to comment’ on whether some of Mr Farrar’s actions were the norm for the role he was performing, essentially on behalf of the Office of Sport”.

Mr Garcia said it appeared both Mr Farrar and ENSW’s potential or perceived conflicts of interest became known among NSW Office of Sport staff, but “were not formally documented” and no plan was set in place to manage them.

“Doing so likely would have reduced perceptions of corrupt conduct having occurred.”

The Australian revealed in March last year that BSM was connected to the son of Equestrian NSW president Peter Dingwall and the tender process had been the subject of internal and external inquiries.

Mr Dingwall’s son, Stephen, is married to the daughter of ­Barrie Smith and has worked for his father-in-law’s company, BSM Sport Equestrian, the Australian distributor for the German arena surfaces used at SIEC.

The Australian is not suggesting the Dingwalls or Smiths had any conflict of interest, only that the tender process has been investigated.

The $1m resurfacing project required major rectification work last year when the contractor was called back to remove thousands of plastic “nodules” from its surface, which had been labelled a potential hazard by NSW government officials.

On Tuesday, The Australian revealed that parts of the surface, which was supposed to be new, had been repurposed from another equestrian facility — Wallaby Hill in NSW’s Southern Highlands — in contravention of the NSW Office of Sport’s contract for a new surface.

Wallaby Hill is owned by Alex Townsend, who was on ENSW’s board at the time of the tender and acted as a referee for BSM in its application.

Ms Townsend said her surface had been installed in 2017 and had been removed by Otto engineers when they realised its high clay content was inappropriate for her outdoor arena. She said she had no idea parts of the surface would be transplanted to SIEC but was thrilled with BSM’s services.

Mr Farrar told The Australian ICAC had never contacted ENSW and the upgraded arenas had been an outstanding success.