UOW Chancellor stands aside amid ICAC inquiry<\/a><\/p>\nMichael Still steps down pending the outcome of a public inquiry examining recruitment, consultancy contracts and conflicts of interest at the University of Wollongong.<\/p>\n
During his evidence on Friday Professor Brawley criticised Mr Still for repeatedly crossing “the management line” between governance and operational management.<\/p>\n
The inquiry heard the chancellor controlled a discretionary fund worth $2 million.<\/p>\n
Professor Brawley said he had become concerned about the growing use of the discretionary fund, joking he had begun to think it was “the magic pudding” because it appeared to be funding governance positions.<\/p>\n
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Sean Brawley told the ICAC inquiry a disputed salary increase for governance manager Stacey Oon was approved on the day he was dismissed. (Supplied: NSW ICAC)<\/p>\n
Months after Ms White’s commencement in the role in October 2023, Professor Brawley said staff raised concerns about an “us and them” culture developing in regard to several of her appointments.<\/p>\n
He said those concerns were reported and triggered a cultural review, which found Ms White may have breached the university’s code of conduct and policies relating to conflicts of interest, recruitment and selection processes.<\/p>\n
The review recommended a further examination of several appointments, but Professor Brawley told the inquiry his understanding was some of those recommendations were not pursued.<\/p>\n
‘Dismissed’ after refusing pay increase<\/p>\n
Professor Brawley told ICAC he refused to approve a higher salary package for UOW’s senior manager of executive governance, Stacy Oon, and that around that time he was “disestablished”.<\/p>\n
He said he approved an initial package of about $200,000, but was later informed the offer had been increased to $225,000 following discussions involving Mr Still.<\/p>\n
When shown the documents for the first time, Professor Brawley told the inquiry the higher salary was ultimately approved by acting vice-president of operations, Matthew Wright, after the intervention of the chancellor.<\/p>\n
Professor Brawley reacted as he read an email he had not seen before detailing the decision, telling the hearing: “Matt approved it \u2026 on the day I was dismissed.”<\/p>\n
“So I must have spoken to him that morning \u2026 and then later in the day was told my fate,” Professor Brawley said.<\/p>\n
‘Toxic’ relationship<\/p>\n
Under cross-examination on Friday Ms Oon said Ms White’s recruitment decisions were motivated by “altruistic factors” and “the betterment of the university”.<\/p>\n
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Stacey Oon gives evidence at the ICAC inquiry into governance at the University of Wollongong. (Supplied: NSW ICAC)<\/p>\n
Dr Oon also clarified Ms White never asked her to “falsify or create incorrect dates” when preparing a chronology of KordaMentha’s procurement and Mr Dewar’s appointment.<\/p>\n
While answering questions from the Commissioner, Dr Oon broke down in tears as she spoke about what she described as a “toxic” relationship with Ms White.<\/p>\n
On Monday the inquiry heard from another member of the governance team, Emma Pinfold, whose partner was a long-time friend of Ms White’s.<\/p>\n
Ms Pinfold told the corruption watchdog she received interview guidance and early notification she had secured a governance role.<\/p>\n
She ultimately agreed the assistance may have compromised the integrity of the recruitment process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former University of Wollongong (UOW) deputy vice-chancellor says he “utterly” rejects allegations he ignored recruitment concerns within…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":900432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[364684,4740,364680,59597,59599,364682,364681,50,364683,289495,364686,364685],"class_list":["post-900431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-alyssa-white","tag-australia","tag-dean-brawley","tag-icac","tag-independent-commission-against-corruption","tag-john-dewar","tag-michael-still","tag-news","tag-stacy-oon","tag-university-of-wollongong","tag-uow-corruption-allegations","tag-uow-icac-investigation"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116832578363176324","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=900431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/900432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=900431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=900431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=900431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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