“I have sadly concluded that this integrity commission doesn’t understand integrity. I got the report. I wept,” writes CityNews legal columnist HUGH SELBY. Here’s why…

I hoped the ACT Integrity Commission (IC) was going to allay my fears with its long-delayed report on how LendLease was awarded a multi-million-dollar contract for Campbell school building works when Manteena clearly deserved that work.

There were two reasons for my fears. The first was that because so many of my articles are critical of actions and non-actions, I wanted to write a congratulatory piece where all of us, save those found to be corrupt, could smile.

The second reason was that after the IC attempted to avoid judicial review of its work by claiming parliamentary privilege in another of its inquiries, I sadly concluded that this integrity commission didn’t understand integrity.

I got the report. I wept.

Recall that before the IC was involved we already had the excellent report of the Auditor-General (from late 2021) that exposed what had happened: in a nutshell, that all the usual procedures for a capital works project, properly followed, had led to Manteena being the preferred contractor. But then the decision maker had decided on LendLease.

The hard work already done, the key questions, straightforward enough, were:

• Did Mr Green act alone to achieve the decision in favour of LendLease?

•  If so, why did he so act?

•  If not, with whom did he act?

• Why did he follow their bidding?

Here’s why the snail-pace ACT Integrity Commission has to go

The IC goes hunting

That the five-year inquiry took into account 1.8 million digital evidence items, the examination of 30 people with 17 days of public hearings and 34 days of private hearing is not a matter for congratulation. Rather the opposite.

This is an awful example of an investigative body not being able to see the wood for the trees.

Put yourself in their shoes. Mr Green (not his real name), who in his former position had refused to do the bidding of the local CFMEU, was now working in Education and became the expected decision maker, until he was replaced by Katy Haire, the director-general of the Education Directorate. It was she who made the bizarre decision.

Given his previous refusal to kowtow to the union, it needs more than speculation to advance the argument that he willingly rolled over to become a patsy for a stupid plan (if it ever was a plan).

However, standing up to the CFMEU and refusing to follow the instructions of your department head are not comparable acts: the latter may be career ending. It’s easy to say that he should have been brave, and done this and that. In real life, it’s not that easy to do.

No one should expect him to have been a whistleblower. That is a path for martyrs.

The CFMEU are powerful political players in this town with an enviable property portfolio. To imagine that they would be so stupid as to arrange a glaringly obvious breach of the well-established rules for public capital works is far-fetched.

Absent recorded conversations in which one or more of their executives lays out capturing the will of the head of the Education Directorate, we can put that explanation aside.

Which leaves two, possibly three players. They are the Minister Yvette Berry, her chief of staff Josh Ceramidas and Ms Haire.

I have been repeatedly critical of now former Minister Berry for her non-performance on housing issues. However, the IC couldn’t lay a finger on her with respect to this tender fiasco.

For all the indifference, the buck stops with Berry

As stated in the Report (para 382), there was no evidence that the Minister had any knowledge of what Mr Ceramidas was saying and doing in his dealings with Mr Green or Ms Haire, namely purporting to be a message bearer for the CFMEU with the imprimatur of the minister’s office.

Never, ever did I expect to think of Ms Berry as a victim, but I do today: collateral damage from the nonsense utterances of her chief of staff, Mr Ceramidas.

Nothing more needs to be said about him or his foolish games. Since these matters all happened some years ago, he is now probably a changed man with far better understanding of what to say about current matters, to whom, by what means.

He has to live with the fact that he brought down his own minister, rather as Ms Higgins, by her egregious conduct, damaging her employer Senator Reynolds and manager Ms Fiona Brown.

Which leaves Ms Haire, then but no longer, head of Education. The IC found her lacking in credibility. Of interest (mentioned at paragraph 380) is why didn’t she seek advice from colleagues, or the head of the ACT Public Service, when she was leaned on by Mr Ceramidas?

That question isn’t answered in the report. That’s a pity, because an answer may have explained much of this fiasco. That there is no answer follows from her blame shifting: “Not me, him – Mr Green”.

It’s been seven years from the procurement plan for the Campbell work to the release of the IC report. The IC has been burrowing here, there and everywhere for five of them.

So much time, so much effort, so much in lawyers’ fees for so very little.

Former barrister Hugh Selby is the CityNews legal affairs columnist. His free podcasts on “Witness Essentials” and “Advocacy in court: preparation and performance” can be heard on the best known podcast sites.

Integrity Commission trots out report years after horses bolted

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