The head of the ACT Education Directorate denied she reweighted tender criteria as she overturned a recommendation on a school construction project, the ACT Integrity Commission has heard.
Education Directorate director-general Katy Haire said she sought advice from the delegate in charge of the Campbell Primary School modernisation project about how to go about making a decision that was contrary to the recommendation from the tender evaluation report.
The report showed that Manteena had a bid that was within budget and was the preferred design.
However, Ms Haire said the delegate, given the pseudonym John Green, had told her that Manteena did not have a good track record on factors covered by the Secure Local Jobs Code, such as work health and safety and ethical treatment of workers.
This was his opinion based on his experience with the ACT construction industry, she said.
Ms Haire said she knew early in 2020 that implementing the principles of the Secure Local Jobs Code was a high priority for the Education Minister's office.
She said she spoke to the minister's chief of staff at the time, Joshua Ceramidas, about whether this was still the case in June when the evaluation report was delivered.
"Mr Ceramidas said yes, the Secure Local Jobs principles are more important than ever," Ms Haire told the commission.
Ms Haire said she asked Mr Green how it would be possible under the procurement rules for her to make a different decision than what was recommended by the tender evaluation panel.
The tender evaluation report had a criteria directly relating to secure local jobs code which made up 10 per cent of the total scoring.
There was only a 0.8 percentage point difference in the scores of Manteena (7.1 per cent) and Lendlease (7.9 per cent) on this criteria.
Ms Haire said she considered it within the decision-maker's remit to make a different decision based on a government policy, that being the secure local jobs code.
"I don't agree that I reweighted it because I think the weighting applied to the work the panel did and it's purview," Ms Haire said.
Ms Haire said she got advice that the deficiencies in Lendlease's design could be remedied in the stage one of the tender because the Territory would assume the intellectual property of both of the final designs.
She said she regretted not adequately documenting her decision.
Ms Haire said she did not have detailed knowledge of the Secure Local Jobs Code, nor the ACT government procurement rules when making the decision.
"I relied on the advice about the track record of the companies from Mr Green. I had no independent knowledge of the companies myself," she said.
'I wasn't ever summoned'
Ms Haire said she did not tell Mr Green in March 2020 that the Education Minister's office had a view on which company should be awarded the tender.
"I wasn't ever summoned to the minister's office to talk about the Campbell tender and it was never relayed to me that they had a view that Manteena wasn't to get the tender," Ms Haire said.
Mr Green had previously told the commission he had a conversation with Ms Haire on her return from leave in March 2020 where Ms Haire had told him the she was to be the final decision-maker on the Campbell Primary School project tender.
Mr Green said Ms Haire told him: "I was summoned to the minister's office to talk about Campbell tender. They've got a view that Manteena is not to get the job."
Ms Haire said she did not recall this conversation and denied saying that she was to be the decision-maker. She said she became the decision maker in mid-May 2020.
She denied knowledge of rumours at that time that the construction union had issues with Canberra construction firm Manteena, who had been shortlisted for the Campbell Primary contract alongside Lendlease.
Ms Haire said her priority was to ensure schools could implement remote learning and provide a place for children of frontline workers to go during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"There was an absolute firestorm of public debate on whether or not schools should operate," she said.
Ms Haire had called Education Minister Yvette Berry's then chief of staff Josh Ceramidas to tell him that fast-tracking of some school infrastructure projects could be discussed at a meeting on March 26, including the Campbell project.
She wrote an email on March 26, 2020, to then Major Projects Canberra chief projects officer Duncan Edghill agreeing with his proposal to work with the preferred tenderer for the Campbell project to bring the costs within budget.
"I believe I had advice and support from Mr Green that we would take the action as proposed by Mr Edghill," Ms Haire told the commission.
However, Mr Edghill's suggestion was not taken up. The next day on March 27 a second tender evaluation team was stood up with the objective of recommending whether the tender process proceed to a best and final offer process.
The project was eventually awarded to Lendlease, despite Manteena's bid being cheaper and having a better design.
The ACT Integrity Commission is investigating whether Education Directorate officials failed to exercise their official functions honestly and impartially while handling the procurement process for the Campbell Primary School modernisation project between 2019 and 2020.
The public examinations will resume on December 4.
