source : the age
As the University of Wollongong was courting KordaMentha partner John Dewar to act as its interim vice-chancellor in May 2024, chancellor Michael Still told him it was “very likely” that his consulting firm would win work at that very university.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption is mid-way through a multi-pronged public hearing investigating the university, including its appointment of Dewar as the acting vice-chancellor and whether the conflict of interest between his appointment and that of KordaMentha was adequately managed.
Dewar told his KordaMentha boss Henriette Rothschild in an email in May 2024 that Still had said “they are running it in a way that makes it very likely we will win” work with the university. There were two other contenders, the email tendered to the ICAC said – a big four that “won’t get it” and a smaller outfit which had done work for the university with which it was displeased.
At this stage, Still was trying to get Dewar to leave KordaMentha on secondment to the $1 million a year job at the university, which was at that time facing a legion of problems including poor financials, disengaged staff and a $169 million debt to a developer over a housing agreement derailed by the pandemic.
Dewar told counsel assisting Emma Bathurst that he initially wanted KordaMentha to be given the work “diagnosing” the university’s woes without a procurement process, but Still raised probity concerns.
It would need to be a “proper procurement process”, another email from Still tendered to the ICAC said.
This put some obstacles in the way of his hopes that his firm would benefit, the member of the Order of Australia agreed on Thursday afternoon.
A graduate of Oxford and former vice-chancellor of La Trobe University, Dewar’s suitability for the role vacated abruptly by Patricia Davidson was flagged by the University of NSW chancellor David Gonski. Its vice-chancellor, Attila Brungs, made the introduction of Still to Dewar.
The ICAC is also investigating whether former head of governance Alyssa White helped friends and associates get jobs at the university on at least 10 occasions and whether Still, White or other staff improperly used their role to award work to the consulting firm Aspirall.
On Tuesday, the ICAC heard that White told head of people and culture Alison Bourke that the $389,000 gig in the vice-chancellor’s office would be “mine”.
Bourke said she was shocked at White’s certainty given the absence of a competitive process and legal risks, and claimed she told White that the “optics” of such a well-paid job in the context of the university’s financial woes must be considered.
“At one stage I thought I was being punked,” Bourke said.
The hearing has heard that an electrician and school friend of White’s was given a job in governance despite having no expertise, failing to complete a pre-interview task and submitting his application late; on another occasion, a former marketing manager married to a friend of White’s was told “you will definitely be employed!!”
The ICAC will resume on Friday.
