Inquiry into $1m Sydney equestrian centre upgrade

NSW Sport Minister Natalie Ward has green-lit a parliamentary inquiry into the $1m upgrade of the Sydney Inter­national Equestrian Centre.

The 2018 Sydney International Horse Trials at the Sydney International Equestrian Centre. Picture: Brittany Bates

NSW Sport Minister Natalie Ward has approved a parliamentary inquiry into the $1m upgrade of the Sydney Inter­national Equestrian Centre after ICAC found eight “corruption risks” regarding the tender process used to award taxpayer funds to a company linked to the son of Equestrian NSW’s president.

Ms Ward announced her support for the inquiry last week after NSW One Nation leader Mark Latham moved a motion in the state parliament that the matter be reopened and scrutinised by the state’s Public Work Committee.

“The background to the issue is that serious people, who include a whistleblower, reported to me information about a tender that clearly had gone wrong and involved a misuse of public money,” he said.

The Australian revealed in March last year that the successful contractor Barrie Smith Motorsport 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.

Ms Ward told parliament she had been advised by the Office of Sport that concerns were raised by staff during the procurement process for upgrading the arena used at the Sydney Olympics.

“For the record, the matters raised in the motion occurred prior to my arrival in the portfolio,” Ms Ward said. “I do not resile from the fact that the matters are mine now, and I intend to deal with them.”

She said the Office of Sport would be “fully available” to investigators and would answer any questions raised by the inquiry.

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.

That surface 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.

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 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.

Ms Ward said she would also refer the matter back to ICAC and unlike previous inquiries the fresh NSW probe will be able to compel witnesses to give evidence.

Mr Farrer told The Australian the SIEC project had been thoroughly investigated by the NSW Office of Sport and by probity experts O’Connor Marsden “with no impropriety found”. “In any case, Equestrian NSW looks forward to participating in the parliamentary inquiry,” he said.