The former CEO of the CIT Leanne Cover has been found to be corrupt by the ACT Integrity commission after its two-year investigation into a series of multi-million dollar contracts awarded to a single consultant.

Ms Cover resigned on June 18, two years after she was “temporarily” stood down on full pay ($373,061 a year) until the investigation into more than $8.5 million awarded to “complexity and systems thinker” Patrick Hollingworth was complete.

The CIT former chairman Craig Sloan was found not to be corrupt, but that there were grounds to have sacked him, in the first part, the Special Report, of the Integrity Commission’s Operation Luna report that was handed to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly late on Thursday afternoon.

In his report, Integrity Commissioner Michael Adams says: “The integrity of the legal frameworks that provide for governance of public entities such as the CIT, depends on the due performance of their responsibilities by the officials who are charged with its management including, in particular, the CEO.

“Her corrupt conduct adversely impacted the exercise by the Board of its supervisory function… in connexion 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’. It follows that Ms Cover was guilty of serious corrupt conduct within s 10 of the IC Act.”

In regards to Mr Sloan, Commissioner Adams was critical of the former chairman’s approach to keeping Minister Chris Steel informed.

“Failing to bring the information in the report to the Minister’s attention was a serious failure to exercise due care and
diligence in the performance of his statutory responsibilities. It is imperative that a minister in the position of Minister Steel be able to rely on being adequately and truthfully informed of important matters that affect the exercise of his or her functions.

“The failure in this case, in my view, could constitute reasonable grounds for ‘dispensing with the services of, or

However the commissioner wasn’t satisfied to the requisite degree that this constituted a “breach of public trust”… “since the evidence does not warrant a finding that Mr Sloan’s omission was intentional or reckless”.

The former chair retired from the board at the end of his term on June 30, 2022.

Meanwhile CIT chair Kate Lundy welcomed the Special Report of the Integrity Commission regarding Operation Luna.

She says in response to the board’s past experience, it has been working to strengthen the CIT’s governance, finance, and procurement processes.

This has included the appointment of a new CIT executive and interim CEO “who have led the organisation through this rebuilding stage.”

She says financial delegations have been constrained to ensure that procurements for goods and services over $1 million and
consultancies over $500,000 are approved by the CIT Board rather than the CEO.  The Board is meeting more frequently to ensure fulsome oversight of CIT business and deeper consideration of strategic and operational issues.

“The board notes that while this Special Report has been released, that the Integrity Commission investigation is still underway and as such the board cannot make comment on their wider investigations,” she says.