But those findings,part of a long-running series of internal probes into alleged misconduct by employees and contractors within the agency responsible for delivering NSW’s multibillion-dollar Metro rail projects,were later rejected by the same department as being “unsupported by tangible evidence”.
Details of the explosive allegations,some of which were later referred to the NSW anti-corruption watchdog,are contained in documents obtained by the Herald.
Former Sydney Metro senior executive Tim Parker has rejected the allegations.AFR
They reveal that Tim Parker,a former Sydney Metro senior executive,was last year informed that allegations he breached government procurement and competition policies had been sustained,only for a later report to cast doubt on the findings.
Parker,who was unveiled last month as the inaugural chief executive of the Commonwealth’s new High-Speed Rail Authority,has rejected the claims,telling theHerald:“I deny the allegations. What was alleged did not happen.”
Last year,an investigation commissioned by Transport NSW found there was “substantial documentary and circumstantial evidence” that indicated Parker’s actions – along with those of two other senior employees at Sydney Metro – had “significantly compromised” the process behind the hiring of a contractor on an almost half-a-million dollar salary.
“[There] is sufficient evidence,on the balance of probabilities,to substantiate each of the two allegations and find that through his conduct,Mr Parker acted in breach of the Transport Code of Conduct,” the investigation found.
The trove of documents – released via a parliamentary order – detail a complex series of internal investigations into anonymous complaints that alleged “conflicts of interest and alleged corrupt conduct” in procurement and recruitment within Sydney Metro between October 2022 and February last year.
After receiving the complaints,Sydney Metro conducted an initial investigation,code-named Elara,into a series of allegations against Parker and the two other employees. The complaints included an allegation that Parker breached procurement rules by approving the employment of a senior work health and safety officer on a salary of more than $450,000 without conducting a mandatory tender.
That preliminary investigation was provided to NSW Transport,Sydney Metro’s umbrella agency,which hired an external investigative firm to review the complaints against Parker and the two other employees.
That investigation,dated August 21 last year,sustained an allegation that in February 2022 Parker instructed a contractor within the agency to “create a role to accommodate herself” following the end of her involvement with Sydney Metro.
The investigation report stated Parker was alleged to have “facilitated” the contractor in drafting the justification for the position,“negotiating an elevated pay grade” and “self-endorsing the creation of the role”.
The role,worth $459,056,was later taken up by the same contractor. That,it was alleged,was a breach of procurement rules,which required competitive tenders for engagements that were worth more than $150,000.
The investigation found that,while “an approach to market” was initiated for the job,“circumstantial evidence indicated that the actions of Mr Parker[and two other senior employees] significantly compromised this approach to market through their shared intent to have[the contractor] assume the newly created role without challenge”.
On that basis,it found there was “sufficient evidence,on the balance of probabilities” to substantiate the allegations against Parker.
The breaches initially found against Parker related to ethical decision-making,conflicts of interest,and manager and staff responsibilities.
But despite those findings,another document published by parliament shows NSW Transport later poured doubt on the report that it had commissioned. A document marked “workplace conduct/disciplinary case summary” seen by theHerald states the findings were “unsupported by tangible evidence” and were “heavily reliant upon contextual evidence”.
Parker himself flatly denied the allegations against him when approached for comment. He said that he had never seen the external investigation report or the later case summary that appeared to clear him.
He said he had not been interviewed during the external investigation,and had instead been provided a “warning letter” by the agency and had requested a review of its findings which he believed had not been completed when he left Sydney Metro at the end of last year. He said he had only been able to provide a written statement.
The trove of documents includes parts of the statement provided by Parker. In it,he says that “at no point during the development and finalisation of the role did I advise[the contractor] that she should design the role for herself”.
“I’m a public servant and I accept and absolutely applaud the process around whistleblowing but it did not happen,” he told theHerald.
“There is a sense of due justice and usually,if something like that is alleged,you interview someone and are given access to the evidence. I deny it categorically.”
Federal Infrastructure Minister Catherine King last month announced Parker as the inaugural chief executive officer of the High-Speed Rail Authority after the Albanese government committed $500 million to facilitate a high-speed rail network on Australia’s east coast.
The federal department of infrastructure was contacted for comment,and it is unclear whether the minister was aware of the allegations against Parker when it made the appointment.
NSW Greens MP Cate Faehrmann.Dion Georgopoulos
A copy of the earlier Elara investigation states that it was referred to the NSW ICAC. It is not clear whether the referral related to Parker’s conduct or that of the other two Sydney Metro officials who were subject to the allegations. TheHerald does not suggest the referral related to Parker.
The Sydney Metro report states the ICAC responded to the referral that it “supported Sydney Metro continuing their enquiries into the conduct”.
“ICAC have requested Sydney Metro to provide them with an update when enquiries have concluded,” the report stated. The ICAC has not confirmed that it has taken the matter further.
Both Sydney Metro and Transport for NSW had argued against the disclosure of the internal probe but were forced to release it after Greens MP Cate Faehrmann successfully fought a secrecy order.
The massive trove of documents relates to a series of separate investigations by the rail authority into a wide range of internal complaints about alleged misconduct including the use of private contractors,some of which have previously been reported by theHerald.
Separately,NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen this week received the results of a review ordered into the use of private contractors,which was commissioned after concerns about senior managers running private companies which recruit contractors to the agency.
Haylen said she had initiated a series of changes aimed at tightening the use of professional services contractors at Sydney Metro and that the agency now employed 256 of that category of worker down from 467 in September last year.
A Department of Infrastructure spokesperson said:“Appointments have to follow an extensive declaration process,and that process was followed for the HSRA CEO appointment.”
“If any new information came to light,it would be considered in line with established processes.”
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