CIT board chair Kate Lundy says there is concern at length of Integrity Commission investigation

CIT board chair Kate Lundy urged the government to give more resources to the commission if this would help the investigation go faster.

But Ms Lundy told budget estimates the board was willing to pay the price of two CEO salaries as that was the cost of "procedural fairness and natural justice".

The ACT Integrity Commission has been investigating the awarding of $8.78 million worth of contracts to companies owned by "complexity and systems thinker" Patrick Hollingworth.

The investigation has been underway since June 2022 and CIT chief executive Leanne Cover has been stood down on full pay during this time.

Ms Lundy said the institute would not make a decision on the employment of the chief executive until the Integrity Commission has completed its inquiry.

"We are of course concerned of the length of the Integrity Commission inquiry but to provide both procedural fairness and natural justice we think that is a price worth paying," she said.

"We would like to see that inquiry proceed more quickly. If it were a question of resources for the Integrity Commission, we would urge the resources necessary to be provided to the Integrity Commission if that meant it goes faster.

"It does cost us but it is a cost that we are continually willing to pay as a board to ensure all of those procedures are handled appropriately and properly in accordance with the wishes of both the Integrity Commission and the community that supports that Integrity Commission processes."

The CIT chief executive is paid a total annual package worth $373,061, with the position attracting a 3.5 per cent pay rise this year.

The institute's acting chief executive, Christine Robertson, has the potential to be in the role for another two years as her contract is able to be extended until July 2025.

Ms Robertson lives in Melbourne but has been travelling to Canberra or works remotely in the role. She has been given a $55,000 allowance to cover travel and accommodation costs. Ms Lundy said this is the total allowance for all costs and is not an annual allowance.

The board chair took on notice a question about how many times the acting CEO had visited Canberra this year but Ms Lundy was concerned about what the question implied.

"It concerns me that the motivation for the question is to impugn something less than perfect on her ability to work," she said.

"I just don't want the answers to these questions to cast aspersions in any way on Ms Robertson's commitment to her role as interim CEO as she's been working extremely hard like all of her colleagues, all of our teaching staff, all of our admin staff to make sure that CIT is responding to the needs of the Canberra community."

Skills Minister Chris Steel said the CEO's employment was a matter for CIT.

"Employment matters are a matter for the CIT board. They are an independent territory authority and so the board has responsibility for matters relating to the CEO and they've made a decision that they want to respect procedural fairness and natural justice," Mr Steel said.

The Integrity Commission is finalising a draft submission as part of its investigation and it intends to release an interim report but this will not happen until, at the earliest, the end of the year.

While the commission has not released any findings, the Auditor-General released a report earlier this month which showed CIT was offered a discount from Mr Hollingworth if it paid him up front for a contract worth nearly $5 million.

This was despite the offer being more than $2 million higher than any other offer.

Mr Hollingworth's company, Think Garden, was expected to be paid on "five time-based milestones" and received $1.7 million when the contract was signed.

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This contract was suspended by CIT following the announcement of the investigation.

Think Garden is now taking legal action against CIT and is suing the institute for almost $3.4 million - the remaining cost of the contract.

Mr Hollingworth's company is alleging the institute breached an agreement when it suspended the two-year contract and is claiming to have "suffered loss and damage".

Ms Lundy would not comment on the legal action but was asked by estimates committee chair Mark Parton about whether CIT was better off or worse off due to the contract not proceeding.

"I think the CIT is better off that those contracts with that organisation are not proceeding," she said.

Ms Lundy was the deputy chair of the CIT board when the $4.99 million contract was signed. She reiterated the board's position that it had no oversight of this contract.

"It's well known those contracts were engaged in over a series over a period of time and at some point were perceived as being delivering value," she said.

"But there is no doubt that, particularly the final contract ... we were not privy to the detail of that contract that it was not going to add value and therefore we weren't able to give the Minister assurance."

Ms Lundy said the board and executive team at CIT had worked "incredibly hard" to rebuild the organisation's capacity, financial management and governance.

"Since I've been chair of the organisation we've been rebuilding the capacity for the organisation, without those consultants in place to ensure that we have an executive and a workforce that is right size to respond to the needs of training here in the ACT," she said.

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