Canberra Institute of Technology has been asked to explain almost $5 million paid to a "complexity and systems thinker", after even the minister was unable to work out what the consultant is being paid to do.
Skills Minister Chris Steel has demanded an explanation from the institute's board of directors after CIT awarded a $4.99 million contract to Think Garden, a company run by consultant Patrick Hollingworth. He said he had previously raised questions about earlier, less expensive contracts with the same person.
CIT has defended the contract, saying it was important to the institution's strategic direction over the coming years, but did not provide a plain-English response as to the nature of the contract.
Mr Hollingworth is described on his website as a "complexity and systems thinker" who "looks for patterns and weak signals" and "works on reconfiguring organisational dynamics".
Mr Steel has also urged the territory's Auditor-General to examine a series of contracts CIT had awarded to Mr Hollingworth and his companies since 2017.
This came after the ACT's opposition moved a motion calling for the government to commission an independent audit into the contracts.
The amount of the latest contract - $4,999,990.00 - was $10 below the threshold at which the contract would have needed to go before the government procurement board.
Most of the publicly available copy of the contract has been redacted.
It included an agreement to provide services to "detect early/weak signals and build trends to improve products and services" and "establish and self-sustain practices that allow for iterative learning cycles across a range of temporal (weeks, months, years and decades) and spatial (individuals, teams, departments, colleges/divisions) scales".
The publicly notified contract said there was a "deep partnership between CIT and the service provider", who would need to "ride both the highs and lows associated with an innovative approach to large-scale transformations of a high visible public institution".
The Skills Minister has asked CIT how and why the institute determined the work was "necessary, efficient and appropriate" and what specifically would be delivered.
"What justification is there for such a large quantum of funding, at $4.99 million, being used for change management services of this nature? Were lower cost alternatives considered?" Mr Steel asked in a letter to Craig Sloan, the CIT board chair, seen by The Canberra Times.
A CIT spokesman said the nature of the work required Think Garden to partner with the institution "to enable it to function as a system that learns".
It said the company was required to guide and codesign with CIT in:
- "Developing system wide capabilities of situational awareness, early/weak signal detection and noise sorting;
- "Developing both context-specific and generalised responses to the multitude of situations it encounters;
- "Developing iterative capacity to cycle through adaptive/renewal processes across multiple spatial and temporal scales;
- "Using and applying the relevant knowledge, tools, artefacts and approaches in enabling CIT to become a system that learns; and
- "Using and applying the various organisational structures which promote better adherence to and governance of all the above practices."
When asked to explain what exactly this meant, the spokesman said the language was appropriate for the context.
"This language is appropriate for the market for the specific technical services for which CIT required as part of operationalising the aspiration and intent of the strategy set by the CIT board," the spokesman said.
"It means that CIT wish to progress the strategy it has been using, which is based on systems complexity, to build the adaptive capacity of CIT to constantly change and produce better outcomes for industry and students. The work will include expanding the ability to experiment and test ideas and codesign context specific solutions."
The letter said Mr Steel had sought clarification from the CIT board in March 2021 on what the first of four contracts awarded to Mr Hollingworth did to contribute to CIT.
"In my subsequent discussions directly with you, and between my office and CIT's CEO, the government flagged concerns that these contracts may not represent efficient use of public funds in line with community expectations," Mr Steel wrote.
"I am therefore concerned that CIT has entered into another, significantly larger contract with this provider, following those discussions and advice.
"I have reviewed the tender documentation and contract for this procurement and am unable to determine the specific work to be delivered through it, based on the use of jargon and an ill-defined statement of requirements."
Mr Hollingworth told a podcast in June 2017 he had worked as a consultant for more than a decade, including as an environmental consultant for large-scale oil and gas projects and mining projects to help approvals.
A biographical statement on the Think Garden website said he had "worked as a scientist across the globe for over two decades, in the last decade focusing specifically on organisational responses and adaptations to rapid change, uncertainty and complexity".
Interests controlled by Mr Hollingworth have been awarded more than $8 million in contracts by CIT since 2018. The Canberra Liberals drew attention to the issue on Tuesday, when ACT Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee said the contracts rang "serious alarm bells".
Ms Lee, who brandished a redacted document of work completed released under freedom-of-information laws at a press conference on Tuesday, said the explanation for the contracts was "wilfully opaque".
"From the wording of these contracts, what is that expertise?" she said.
"The key information missing from these contracts is what you would expect to see and certainly what you see in other government contracts, which is to outline the personnel, their qualifications and their charge out rate whether it's daily or hourly, and milestones.
"This is seriously concerning and speaks volumes for the culture of secrecy that has been fostered under this Labor-Greens government."
Mr Steel came under sustained questioning in Assembly question time on Tuesday, repeatedly telling opposition members he had asked for clarification from CIT.
Mr Steel told the ACT Legislative Assembly on Tuesday afternoon that he only became aware of the $4.99 million contract on Monday.
"We expect that CIT uses public funding efficiently and effectively," he said.
"I'll certainly be asking those questions and getting detailed advice from the board about the nature of this particular contract."
Mr Steel said he had been advised there was a competitive tender process for the most recent contract, and three service providers had put forward proposals.
Mr Hollingworth has been contacted for comment.
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