ACT Education Directorate officials did not think the handling of a $17.5 million school upgrade contract needed to be referred to the corruption watchdog, despite a damning Auditor-General's report into the way the tender was handled.
But the ACT Integrity Commission has called for submissions about improper conduct in procurement processes on the back of the audit report, which found the tender for an upgrade of Campbell Primary School lacked probity.
Education Minister Yvette Berry defended the conduct of the directorate in relation to the procurement in an annual reports hearing on Friday afternoon, indicating officials did nothing wrong and it was the processes that needed fixing.
"As far as I am aware there was nothing that was done wrong and the procurement processes were followed, however, the Auditor-General has recommended that those processes can be tightened up and the government will consider those processes," she said.
However, in an extraordinary release earlier this week, ACT Integrity Commissioner Michael Adams QC called for businesses in the design, building and construction industries to report any suspicions about government procurement processes to the commission.
Mr Adams said problems with procurement processes were likely to be endemic within the ACT government.
The Integrity Commission is considering an investigation into the procurement processes for the Campbell Primary School modernisation project.
But when officials from the Education Directorate received the Auditor-General's report in December last year they did not feel it met the requirements for a referral to the Integrity Commission.
Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee appeared flummoxed that officials did not believe it met the requirements for a referral to the commission.
"The Auditor-General's report which found that the procurement lacked probity, that tenders were not dealt with fairly, impartially and consistently and raised alarm about the lack of note keeping, you didn't consider that to meet the bar to even just refer it to the Integrity Commission," Ms Lee said.
The audit report examined the 2019 ACT government's tender for the construction of new buildings on the Campbell Primary School campus.
Manteena was identified by two tender evaluation teams in three separate reports as the preferred tenderer. The Canberra-based company quoted a lower price and scored higher against the weighted criteria. Despite this, Lendlease won the contract for the school in June 2020.
The audit found the decision to award the tender was not based on the initial evaluation criteria the government went to market with, but was based on a reweighted and reprioritised criteria.
It also found that communication with tenderers and other parties was informal, uncontrolled and poorly documented, which undermined the probity of the procurement process.
Ms Berry repeatedly said the government would respond to the report in "due course" during the hearings on Friday. She said she first became aware of the probity issues relating to the procurement for the upgrade with the audit report was released last year.
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Ms Berry said it was not appropriate in her role as a minister to be involved in the procurement process.
"Ministers are very much at arms-length on procurement processes so as far as whatever was occurring in that space," she said.
"The Education Directorate is always ensuring that it has appropriate probity and governance around all of the work that it does and will continue to do that."
The Education Directorate and Major Projects Canberra are working together on process improvements, including improved communication protocols, a review of communications with stakeholders and areas where for training and professional development.
The agencies are also exploring whether a probity adviser would be beneficial on all projects going forward.
