A lawyer for an official said he did not act corruptly in his handling of a tender evaluation into the procurement for the construction of an expansion of Campbell Primary School.
John Green, a pseudonym, was alleged to have engaged in "serious corrupt conduct" by counsel assisting the ACT Integrity Commission when he directed a team to undertake a "best and final offer" process.
The team had determined Manteena as a preferred tenderer with the company scoring much higher than Lendlease. The team recommended the government engage in a conversation with Manteena with a view to lowering the final price.
But Mr Green, who worked in the Education Directorate's infrastructure team, told the tender evaluation team to conduct a "best and final offer" process, meaning both companies had to resubmit bids.
Mr Green's lawyer, Athol Opas, told the commission his client was within his right to direct the team to undertake this process as both companies submitted offers that were over the project's budget.
Manteena put forward a price of $17.3 million, which was 11.4 per cent over budget and Lendlease's bid of $18.7 million was 20.8 per cent over.
Advice was sought from the ACT government solicitor about starting this process and the solicitor's office advised this was available.
Mr Green told the commission, in a hearing last year, both tenderers were over budget and neither tender could be accepted as is.
At the same hearing, he also gave evidence saying Education Minister Yvette Berry's office did not want Manteena to receive the contract and the CFMEU had also expressed reservations with him over this. He recognised going with Manteena was "politically risky".
Mr Opas said while Mr Green was facing political pressure his line of thinking was he would have to go to a "best and final offer" (BAFO) process anyway.
"If Mr Green's evidence is that at the relevant time he made the decision to proceed to BAFO, in his view that was really the best option anyway because both tenders were over budget, either that was the best option or the only option... then how could that be serious corrupt conduct even if he had other factors in his mind," he said.
Counsel assisting Callan O'Neill told the commission on Tuesday, Mr Green's decision to proceed with this process lacked probity and he did not act impartially. He said the conduct was enough to fulfil the definition of corrupt conduct.
The commission also heard from the lawyer for Rebecca Cross, who was the acting Education Directorate director-general from February 25 to March 12, 2020.
Mr Green alleged Ms Cross had told him she heard from Ms Berry's then-chief of staff Josh Ceramidas that Manteena was not to receive the contract.
Ms Cross has denied this conversation took place and her lawyer, Andrew Berger KC, sought to question Mr Green's reliability in his submission on Wednesday afternoon.
He said Mr Green had conflated events and suggested Ms Cross had spoken to him about the minister's strong focus on the secure local jobs code.
Mr Berger said Ms Cross had been recognised as an honest witness and if she had such a conversation with the minister's office she would have reported it.
But Mr Opas said Ms Cross had an imperfect recollection of the meeting with the minister's office. He said he was not arguing she was a "less-than-truthful witness" but she was trying her best to recollect what was happening at the time.
"It happened a little while ago, and it may not have stood out as a significant discussion to her at the time," he said.
The Integrity Commission placed a suppression order on Mr Green's identity when public hearings began. He is the only witness who has given evidence under a pseudonym. His evidence was critical of others in the process.
The corruption watchdog is examining whether public officials failed to exercise their official functions honestly and impartially while handling the procurement for Campbell Primary School.
The commission held a third day of public submissions in its investigation to hear from lawyers for witnesses who appeared before the inquiry.
Hearings will continue on Thursday with Education Directorate director-general Katy Haire's lawyers expected to provide their submissions.
