Canberra Institute of Technology chief executive Leanne Cover has resigned two years after the details of a lucrative series of consulting contracts were made public.
Ms Cover had been on paid leave since June 2022, while the ACT Integrity Commission investigated the awarding of those contracts to two firms headed up by a mountaineer and consultant.
No details about the commission investigation, dubbed Operation Luna, have been released to the public.
Ms Cover resigned yesterday, a move which was her own decision, according to CIT board chair Kate Lundy, who told media she was unable to provide further comment on Ms Cover’s decision.
Ms Cover has been receiving her annual salary of more than $360,000 while on leave.
Mr Hollingworth’s firms, Think Garden and Redrouge Nominees, had won about $8.5 million in deals since 2018, though the ACT government said it struggled to understand what the vaguely worded contracts were for.
Ms Lundy said “procedural fairness” had been behind a decision to suspend Ms Cover on paid leave while investigations continued and the board had decided to defer its own investigation while they were underway.
“Of course, it’s difficult for people to understand why we’ve needed to pay the CEO while she’s been stood down but I think any reasonable person would agree that procedural fairness is the first principle we apply and we have abided by that principle,” she said.
“The decision by the CEO to resign enables us to initiate the activities to recruit a permanent CEO.”
Acting CEO Christine Robertson is on a contract for another year, Ms Lundy confirmed, which would give them time to undertake that process.
A spokesperson for the ACT government said today the resignation of Ms Cover meant CIT could “continue to focus on delivering high-quality training to meet the needs of students, staff and industry”.
Multi-million dollar contracts for ‘strategic guidance and mentoring’
According to tender documents, the series of contracts were for “strategic guidance and mentoring services to executives and staff” as well as “design structures and elements that enable greater coordination of analysis and decision-making in relation to products, offerings and services”.
The largest of those contracts was worth $5 million, and was signed with Think Garden in March of 2022.
That same company had previously been awarded a $1.7 million contract in April 2020.
In 2018 and 2021, CIT awarded Mr Hollingworth’s Redrouge Nominees Pty Ltd, contracts for $1.22 million and $512,000 respectively.
In 2022, Ms Cover argued Think Garden had been awarded the latest $5 million deal because it offered “the best value for money” in a competitive tender process.
She told the ABC all of the contracts had been awarded to the best bids the institute had received.
ACT government demanded answers
ACT Skills Minister Chris Steel demanded answers from the CIT board in 2022, saying he had already made his “concerns” about the contracts clear in 2021.
In a letter, he “flagged concerns that these contracts may not represent an efficient use of public funds in line with community expectations”.
“I have reviewed the tender documentation and contract for this [$5 million] procurement and am unable to determine the specific work to be delivered through it, based on the use of jargon and an ill-defined statement of requirements,” Mr Steel said.
In a response to Mr Steel, the CIT board was forced to commission an independent audit into that $5 million contract after it revealed it could not ensure it represented value for money.
That contract was then suspended by the board.
Integrity Commission tipped off about contracts in 2021
An ongoing Integrity Commission investigation into the awarding of the contracts has yet to publish any findings.
The watchdog has previously confirmed it first became aware of the contracts in late 2021, and said it took five months to assess the complaint, before proceeding to a formal investigation.
“The first complaint pertaining to the matters being investigated under Operation Luna was received by the commission in late November 2021,” the commission said in a statement to the ABC.
An ACT Auditor-General’s report has found CIT did not address the government procurement board’s advice satisfactorily on any occasion in awarding controversial consultancy contracts worth millions of dollars.
Opposition leader Elizabeth Lee said in a statement she hoped to see the results of that investigation soon.
“During that time Canberra taxpayers have been footing the bill for two CIT CEO’s at a cost of well over $700,000 a year, which includes a number of pay rises,” Ms Lee said.
The ABC has contacted Mr Hollingworth for comment on many occasions. He has not responded.
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