The Campbell Primary School site: four days set aside for hearings in March. Photo: David Murtagh.
The ACT’s anti-corruption watchdog will continue its investigation into the tender process for the Campbell Primary School upgrade with public submissions in the new year.
The Integrity Commission has set out the timetable for Operation Kingfisher, which is investigating whether public officials within the ACT Education Directorate failed to exercise their official functions honestly and/or impartially when making recommendations and decisions regarding the Campbell Primary School Modernisation Project between 2019 and 2020.
The investigation centres on why the tender for the multi-million dollar project was awarded to Lendlease when Manteena was identified as the preferred tenderer.
The Commission concluded its public examinations this month. The next step will be Counsel Assisting providing written submissions to the Commissioner, Michael Adams, by 12 February 2024.
Any party to this matter, including witnesses who have already given evidence, have until 4 March to provide responses to Counsel Assisting’s submissions.
Four days have been set aside from 12 March for public hearings to accept oral submissions from parties.
These hearings will be live-streamed like the public examinations and transcripts will be made available on the Commission’s website.
Mr Adams will consider these submissions in the drafting of the final investigation report for Operation Kingfisher and whether it is appropriate to make any formal corruption findings.
“With Operation Kingfisher, significant amounts of evidence have been given in public,” Mr Adams said.
“In the interests of procedural fairness, I have determined that it is most appropriate to conclude this process with public submissions that allows affected parties the opportunity to respond to the evidence put forward.”
Mr Adams said the conclusion of the public examination and public submission processes did not mean a final investigation report was imminent.
Significant volumes of evidence and materials will need to be considered, and before an investigation report can be finalised, it must be distributed to the affected parties to give them an opportunity to comment, a period of six weeks.
The final report will be tabled in the ACT Legislative Assembly and published on the Commission’s website.
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