Integrity Commission says former CIT CEO Leanne Cover 'guilty of serious corrupt conduct'

An Integrity Commission Special Report has declared former CIT CEO Leanne Cover is “guilty of serious corrupt conduct” over her actions regarding contracts worth $8.5 million awarded to consultant and “complexity and systems thinker” Patrick Hollingworth.

Operation Luna found Ms Cover had “intentionally concealed” from the CIT board a letter sent to her from Skills Minister Chris Steel expressing concerns over the procurement process.

“This amounts to deliberate concealment and, although it represents the most serious conclusion about the conduct in question, I am satisfied to the relevant standard of proof that it is completely justified,” the Integrity Commissioner wrote.

“Put otherwise, it was designed to convey to the Board that no transactions involving Mr Hollingworth were envisaged or underway that needed to be brought to their attention.”

It was found her conduct constituted a “breach of public trust” and a “misuse of information” acquired as she carried out her official functions.

“It also resulted in a substantial benefit for Mr Hollingworth,” the Commissioner wrote.

“Her corrupt conduct adversely impacted the exercise by the Board of its supervisory function in connection with the program of organisational change of which a major part at considerable cost was the procurement of the Hollingworth contracts.

“Accordingly, this conduct was ‘likely to threaten public confidence in the integrity of government or public administration’.”

Mr Steel said it was “bitterly disappointing” that the Commissioner’s investigation found Ms Cover had misled him about the work performed under the Hollingworth contracts and “concealed critically important matters” from the CIT board.

“These acts of dishonesty and concealment, which occurred over a period of approximately a year, amounted to serious corrupt conduct by the former CEO,” he said.

The investigation did find Mr Steel’s office had “effectively” told Ms Cover that further contracts with Mr Hollingworth would “not pass the pub test”.

“This came after I had written earlier in the year questioning the multiplicity of the earlier contracts, their cost and their utility which was not properly disclosed to the full CIT board by either the Chair or the former CEO,” Mr Steel said.

“The Commission has found that as part of the pattern of concealment, the CEO did not inform the CIT Board either of the information from my office or about the proposed procurements with entities associated with Patrick Hollingworth.”

The investigation also found the procurement regulation wasn’t complied with and that the arrangement for the sixth contract was a “major departure” from the payment regime that had been proposed in the contract management plan that was part of that proposal.

“It is an egregious breach of public trust that, when scrutinised by myself, my office, and the Government Procurement Board, the former CEO acted so dishonestly and in a pattern of concealment from the CIT Board,” Mr Steel said.

“The actions of this former CEO are incredibly frustrating and disappointing for myself as Minister, for staff and students at CIT, as well as the ACT community.

“A breach of public trust like this is unacceptable and this report sends a strong message to all senior executives in the ACT public service and statutory authorities that our high expectations must be upheld, or there could be severe consequences through a finding of corruption.”

CIT Board chair Kate Lundy said that as Integrity Commission investigations were continuing, it was not appropriate for her to comment on any particular issues mentioned in the report or individuals at this time.

She said that since her appointment on 1 July 2022, CIT had engaged a new executive to reset the organisation and had taken action to rebuild internal capacity, strengthen governance, finance and procurement processes.

“The Board looks forward to receiving the final report and will consider any recommendations that the Integrity Commission may make to improve governance,” she said.

Ms Cover, who had been stood down from her $373,000-a-year position on full pay for the duration of the investigation, resigned on 18 June, a day before the Commissioner was due to hand the Special Report to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly.

But court action by an unknown person to stop the report’s release delayed this happening, under a suppression order, until today,

Chief Justice Lucy McCallum dismissed the injunction but allowed time for an appeal, but none was forthcoming.

Mr Steel will hold a press conference on the matter in the morning.