Latest news with #SchoolInfrastructureNSW
The Age
3 days ago
- Business
- The Age
Friend of schools boss worked on $600,000 contract before it was approved, ICAC hears
A long-time friend and colleague of former School Infrastructure NSW boss Anthony Manning received millions of dollars in contracts which either 'pushed the boundaries' of, or breached, government procurement rules, the state's anti-corruption watchdog has heard. In one case, Martin Berry, whom the Independent Commission Against Corruption has previously heard had known Manning as a friend and colleague since 2006, appeared to have begun work on a contract worth almost $600,000 about a month before it was approved 'outside normal procurement thresholds'. 'Cart before the horse stuff,' is how Paul Hannan, a senior Department of Education official who appeared before the commission on Friday, described it. 'Rare, super rare stuff,' he said during the second day of his extensive and often tense questioning by counsel assisting Jamie Darams. In total, ICAC has heard that between 2018 and 2022 Berry and his advisory firm, Heathwest, were engaged nine times by School Infrastructure and paid more than $3 million. The two men met in 2006 when Berry gave Manning a job in the Sydney office of consulting firm Turner & Townsend. They socialised together, and Manning organised Berry's buck's party and attended his wedding. They were both members of the 'Tom, Dick and Harry Breakfast Club' along with various other consultants who were also contracted to do work for the school building agency. Berry appeared in the witness stand for the first time on Friday afternoon, and Darams took him through a long history of text messages with Manning dating back to 2015 and early 2016. They boasted about cricket – both men are English, and took pleasure in their Ashes victory at Trent Bridge that year – arranged to catch up for beers on Sydney's northern beaches, and discussed work.
Sydney Morning Herald
3 days ago
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Friend of schools boss worked on $600,000 contract before it was approved, ICAC hears
A long-time friend and colleague of former School Infrastructure NSW boss Anthony Manning received millions of dollars in contracts which either 'pushed the boundaries' of, or breached, government procurement rules, the state's anti-corruption watchdog has heard. In one case, Martin Berry, whom the Independent Commission Against Corruption has previously heard had known Manning as a friend and colleague since 2006, appeared to have begun work on a contract worth almost $600,000 about a month before it was approved 'outside normal procurement thresholds'. 'Cart before the horse stuff,' is how Paul Hannan, a senior Department of Education official who appeared before the commission on Friday, described it. 'Rare, super rare stuff,' he said during the second day of his extensive and often tense questioning by counsel assisting Jamie Darams. In total, ICAC has heard that between 2018 and 2022 Berry and his advisory firm, Heathwest, were engaged nine times by School Infrastructure and paid more than $3 million. The two men met in 2006 when Berry gave Manning a job in the Sydney office of consulting firm Turner & Townsend. They socialised together, and Manning organised Berry's buck's party and attended his wedding. They were both members of the 'Tom, Dick and Harry Breakfast Club' along with various other consultants who were also contracted to do work for the school building agency. Berry appeared in the witness stand for the first time on Friday afternoon, and Darams took him through a long history of text messages with Manning dating back to 2015 and early 2016. They boasted about cricket – both men are English, and took pleasure in their Ashes victory at Trent Bridge that year – arranged to catch up for beers on Sydney's northern beaches, and discussed work.
The Age
08-05-2025
- Politics
- The Age
Head of NSW schools agency told staff to ‘change' demographic data, inquiry told
The former head of the NSW Education Department's school building unit allegedly instructed a data expert to manipulate demographic data to 'make it a higher number', an instruction she told a corruption inquiry she understood to be about securing more budget funding. The Independent Commission Against Corruption heard evidence on Thursday that the former head of School Infrastructure NSW, Anthony Manning, told an employee to change the data prepared for a pre-budget submission to the then-Coalition government. 'He was quite direct, he said change it to be higher,' she said. The state's corruption watchdog is holding a public inquiry into the conduct of Manning, the chief executive of the department's school infrastructure unit from 2017 until last year. Jannatun Haque, a senior data expert in the department who worked under Manning, described her former boss as 'very Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'. 'If you were on his good side [he was] very positive and if it was something he disagreed with you, it was brutal,' she said. Loading She described a meeting with Manning in 2021 in which they discussed the agency's projections on school-age population in which he was unhappy with falling population data. She said Manning told her to 'change' the figures before a pre-budget submission. When she refused to change the data, telling Manning 'we can't just amend those numbers', he told her 'we will find someone who can do what we want them to do'.
