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A University of Wollongong executive asked a subordinate to “amend the timelines” around the appointment of acting vice chancellor John Dewar and the contracting of a consulting firm at which he was a partner to distance the two, the Independent Commission Against Corruption has heard.
University of Wollongong chief governance officer Alyssa White made the request of Stacy Oon, whom White encouraged to join the institution and later promoted to a $200,000 role, mid-last year, the public hearing was told.
As part of the ICAC’s three-week public inquiry, it is investigating whether staff failed to manage a conflict of interest relating to Dewar’s employment as interim vice chancellor (who was paid a salary of $1 million per year in that role) and the university’s concurrent engagement of consultancy firm, KordaMentha, where he was also a business partner.
Counsel assisting the inquiry Emma Bathurst asked Oon on her second tearful day in the witness box whether White asked for the amendments to the two timelines to “seek to distance the processes”.
“She did ask you to amend the timelines so it looked like the panel was unaware of Professor Dewar’s appointment as interim vice chancellor when it appointed KordaMentha as a successful firm?” Bathurst asked.
Oon agreed that was the case but said White’s request was not possible because an announcement had already been made to staff.
Oon told the inquiry the two communicated via Gmail rather than their work email accounts about Dewar’s appointment because it was an “incendiary” time at the university, which had made almost 100 academics redundant and closed courses in an attempt to address its parlous financial position.
“If I had mistakenly written the wrong date it would have been jumped upon and there was every likelihood someone would say, ‘Oh, they’ve fudged the data’,” she said.
“They” referred to the unions or possibly the local media, Oon added.
Whether the university adequately managed the conflict of interest in Dewar’s appointment and the engagement of KordaMentha, a consulting firm at which he is a partner, is the subject of the three-week ICAC inquiry.
The commission is also investigating White, who quit two days before the ICAC hearing began, helped friends and associates get jobs at the university on at least 10 occasions.
It is further looking at whether White, university chancellor Michael Still or other staff had improperly awarded consulting work worth tens of thousands of dollars to a firm called Aspirall Consulting.
On Wednesday, the corruption probe heard that Brenden Hooke, a University of Sydney staffer who defected to the University of Wollongong at White’s encouragement, deleted WhatsApp from his phone when ICAC investigators raided his home early in the morning in February this year.
He denied he deleted the app because of conversations he had with White, Oon and others from the University of Wollongong.
“I was concerned about personal information for me and I would say I was extremely
worried that this was not a legitimate request. I was very, very panicked. I had just woken up, it struck me as bizarre that they had gained access to my floor in my apartment block.”
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