The ACT Integrity Commission plods on with its public examinations this week as it investigates the tender for building works at Campbell Primary School. Here legal columnist HUGH SELBY reviews Wednesday’s hearing in which Manteena’s CEO reveals after a year he could get no coherent explanation of why his company didn’t get the work. 

I WAS told by a wise figure, early in my working career, that an acceptable job was long periods of competent boredom made interesting by unexpected challenges where that competency was tested.

For those who think this is something of an overstatement, I recommend watching Clint Eastwood’s film “Sully” about Capt Sully Sullenberger making a successful, emergency landing of a passenger jet on the Hudson River, New York, with no fatalities: it engaged all that pilot’s talent and experience.

Down to earth here in Canberra, today’s questioning by counsel assisting Callan O’Neill, of Manteena’s CEO, Mr Mark Bauer, and an Education Department officer, Mr Dylan Blom, was a stark reminder of the inevitability of “competent boredom”.

It was necessary, as part of a process of fair, transparent fact finding, to take these two witnesses along the tedious timeline of several years of meetings, phone calls, emails, diary entries – all about aspects of that tender process which, surprisingly, led to the “better” tender losing out.

It was necessary, because on the one hand, we heard earlier in these public investigations from Mr John Green (not his real name) of how the right and true path to assess the competing tenders and award the contract was cast aside as the result of “communication/s” (I am trying hard to be neutral) from “the Minister’s office”.

More recently, we heard from two officials of the CFMEU union as to their “disapproval” (again, striving for neutrality) of Manteena’s approach both to work safety and to their union, and of Mr Green’s failure, in an earlier position as registrar of the Secure Local Jobs Code, to be proactive – in the way they wanted – in responding to their complaints.

We also heard from Education Minister Yvette Berry about the expected roles of her then chief of staff, Josh Ceramidas, and her denial of any untoward or inappropriate conduct by her.

That chief of staff has submitted a written statement denying any wrongdoing on his part. Whether he has subsequently been called to answer questions at a private session I do not know.

Suffice to note for now that, in some unguarded messages to another staffer, the then chief of staff robustly expressed his dislike of Mr Green.

So, what did Wednesday add to our understanding of how this public works debacle came about?

First, in the last moments of the day, Mr Blom confirmed that Mr Green had told him before the wrong decision was made that the union and the minister’s office were unhappy with Manteena getting the work. Mr Blom had earlier been told the same thing by another work colleague.

Second, Manteena’s CEO Mark Bauer got no clear answer when, around a year after the decision, he attended a meeting with the head of Education and others, seeking information on why his company was unsuccessful.

Interestingly, at that meeting, there seemed to be some confusion as to who was the decision maker: was it the head or was it Mr Green?

What he was told then was inconsistent with the verbal debrief given to him (and another) at a Kingston café sometime earlier by Mr Green.

Strikingly, at the time of that café debrief, Manteena had just been awarded a $10 million contract for works at the Canberra Hospital. That’s a different directorate and a different Minister.

Third, Mr Bauer recounted an anonymous phone call to another Manteena director, that Manteena had been recommended twice, that the decision was wrong, and that there should be a freedom of information application (to get disclosure).

Fourth, Mr Bauer denied being aware of any CFMEU claim that his company did not comply with the Secure Local Jobs Code. His company had the certificate required by that code. He pointed with pride to his company’s safety record and its Federal Safety Accreditation.

Fifth, Mr Bauer told us that many of his staff have been with the company for more than 10 years. In an industry with a labour shortage this is enviable.

Finally, and this is a useful reminder as to why transparent, credible tender processes matter, Mr Bauer told us that his company was out of pocket by between $100,000 and $200,000 because of the wrongful contract award for Campbell Public School. (We repeat that no criticism is being made of Lend Lease to whom the contract was awarded.)

It’s one thing to make a business decision, to invest money and time into putting together a tender and then losing to a better bid.

It’s something else to follow all the proper process, to be the winner, and then to be disqualified. That’s a rigged game. That’s corruption, incompetence, or both at work.

There’s more to come Thursday and Friday. Fingers crossed that the points of interest come often.