Markets 
Welcome to day 24 of the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s public inquiry into the City of Parramatta’s former chief executive Gail Connolly and other staff.
Under Operation Navarra, the ICAC is investigating whether council staff members, central among them Connolly, misused public funds by having staff leave through deeds of release (agreements made between staff and the council upon a departure), subverted the council’s recruitment and other processes, disclosed confidential information to third parties, and spied on staff and a councillor.
Yesterday, on Connolly’s sixth and possibly penultimate day in the witness box, the former exec agreed with claims put to her by Counsel Assisting Joanna Davidson SC that she had requested senior staff monitor the emails and phone records of independent councillor Kellie Darley.
Connolly refuted evidence put forward by the council’s former head of IT that she would regularly request searches of staff emails via phone or verbally in order to avoid information being located in freedom of information requests.
Today, Connolly will be cross-examined by Arthur Moses SC, representing the City of Parramatta, and by legal representatives for Roxanne Thornton, a friend and colleague also under investigation by the ICAC.
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