It was a cool morning in spring nearly six years ago when the directors of a construction firm who had missed out on a contract for a school upgrade despite offering a lower price headed to old Kingston, looking for an explanation.
At Bittersweet, the cafe on Green Square, the two Manteena directors met with two public servants. One played a pivotal role in the corruption investigation and was granted anonymity by the ACT Integrity Commission.
That meeting is crucial to understanding how the investigation proceeded and why the man who came to be known as John Green had his identity protected and efforts lauded as a whistleblower, even though "he facilitated the reprehensible conduct" found to have been seriously corrupt.
Three months before the meeting, Lendlease had been awarded the contract for the expansion of the Campbell primary school, despite tender evaluations showing Manteena's proposal was the better of the two and would cost taxpayers less.
A file note included in the Operation Kingfisher report details the September 18, 2020, meeting where Mr Green explained to Manteena's directors there was "a very strong view in government that Manteena has a problem with the CFMEU".
"He stated that it is a real problem and that the 'noise' in this regard is very loud ... Mr Green stated that he didn't know and still doesn't know what the issue is, just that the CFMEU has a problem with Manteena and that our name is regularly mentioned by the CFMEU and in recent times the reference to Manteena has been in 'guttural' terms to the minister and others in the territory government," the record of the Bittersweet meeting said.
The note, made by Manteena, was a "reliable record of the substance of the conversation, and that what was said, particularly by Mr Green, was in substance truthful", the commission's report said.
Mr Green's explanation at Bittersweet differed from his explanation in a brief he provided in June 2020 to the then Education Directorate director-general, Katy Haire, that had recommended Lendlease be awarded the contract.
That brief had said "the stronger proven track record of Lendlease over Manteena outweighs the weaker design submission submitted" and Lendlease ought to be given the work because they had scored higher on "long term indicators of a company's ability to deliver quality projects".
Ms Haire approved the recommendation to award Lendlease the contract noting "in particular the importance of long-term factors".
The corruption report noted Mr Green lied to the ACT Auditor-General, providing an explanation of why he thought Lendlease was the better contractor and details that were not included in the brief.
"The fundamental falsity of his account to the Auditor-General, if his evidence to the Commission is the truth, is that it omitted all suggestion that he acted at the direction of Ms Haire and that the process was influenced by the CFMEU through [then education minister Yvette Berry's former chief of staff, Joshua] Ceramidas," the report said.
"Mr Green's evidence must be evaluated with this substantial obstacle to credibility in mind."
But it was the Integrity Commission that offered Mr Green anonymity after disclosing "the crucial communications"
"The suggestion that anonymity was conditional upon his elaborating his evidence is offensive and wholly untrue; that he was in a position to know the truth does not strengthen the argument that he lied," the commission's report said.
Integrity Commissioner Michael Adams KC wrote in his report Mr Green should be regarded as a whistleblower and it was very much in the public interest to encourage people aware of wrongdoing to come forward even if they were party to the wrongdoing.
The report led to the prompt resignation of Ms Berry on Thursday, as she took responsibility for her staffer's actions despite being cleared of wrongdoing herself.
"It is fair to say that, had Mr Green not been candid about what happened, it is most unlikely that the serious misconduct or at least, its extent, exposed by the Commission's investigation would have come to light, even though the objective evidence of what occurred gave rise to grave suspicions, and some information (such as the file note and the weaknesses exposed in examination) provided an additional basis for some conclusions," Mr Adams' report said.
Mr Green could have stuck to the story he gave to the Auditor-General, though the report noted he would have needed to explain the different account he gave the directors of Manteena at their Bittersweet meeting.
"His candid disclosure to the Manteena directors at the Bittersweet Cafe debrief ... was an attempt to correct the record and, as I have commented, required considerable courage since it amounted in effect to an admission of being involved in a wholly improper undertaking with considerable risk not only for Ms Haire and the government but for himself personally," Mr Adams said.
"Regrettably, however, he did not match this candour when he was interviewed by the Auditor-General."
Ultimately, and despite the "inevitable resulting opprobrium", Mr Green's assistance to the commission led to its findings made public on Thursday.
"It is in the public interest, rather than in his personal interest, that this be appropriately recognised," Mr Adams' report said.
