Education authorities suppressed information related to the procurement process for an expansion of Campbell Primary School but the ACT Ombudsman overturned part of this decision.
There will be a fresh inquiry into the procurement, which has been mired in controversy after an Auditor-General report revealed the process lacked probity and tenderers were not dealt with fairly, impartially and consistently.
The ACT opposition has also raised questions around what Education Minister Yvette Berry knew of issues with the procurement after documents showed she was made aware of the audit in May 2021.
This comes as recently-released documents revealed information around actions taken by the Education Directorate prior to the release of the audit report.
The damning audit report into the Campbell Primary School modernisation project showed Manteena was identified by two tender evaluation teams in three separate reports as the preferred tenderer.
The Canberra-based company consistently scored higher against the weighted evaluation criteria and quoted a lower price.
Despite this, Lendlease won the contract for the school in June 2020 after the acting executive group manager of the Education Directorate's business services division made a recommendation to director-general Katy Haire without adequate reasoning.
The documents showed the Education Directorate refused to disclose information related to the score and price offered by Lendlease for the Campbell Primary School modernisation project.
Manteena lodged a freedom of information request that asked for information around this. This information was not released in the initial release of the documents. Manteena appealed this decision through its lawyers and the ombudsman agreed information on the score should be released but not the price.
In a draft consideration, the ombudsman initially favoured disclosure of the price but an argument against disclosure from the Education Directorate was accepted.
The freedom of information documents around the ombudsman's report were released to The Canberra Times and the Canberra Liberals.
Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee said the documents also raised questions around what Ms Berry knew about the procurement for the expansion.
In annual report hearings in February, Ms Berry was asked when she was first made aware the procurement process lacked probity. She told the hearing she first knew about this when the Auditor-General's report was released in December.
Freedom of information documents showed Ms Berry knew the ACT Auditor-General was doing a performance audit on the procurement on May 25, 2021.
Two months later, on July 29, she was briefed that the audit was progressing and the directorate had planned to meet with Major Projects Canberra in August to discuss strengthening the procurement process.
However, there is nothing in the documents to suggest the findings of the audit report around the procurement lacking probity were known prior to the release of the report.
Ms Lee said the Education Minister was either "incompetent" or was "deliberately hiding the truth".
"It is astounding that the minister has continually stated she had no knowledge of issues with procurements within her directorate until the Auditor-General's report was released in December," Ms Lee said.
"What we see again is a culture of secrecy within the ACT Labor-Greens government hoping to sweep it all under the carpet."
The Education Directorate and Ms Berry did not respond to requests for comment by print deadline.
The Legislative Assembly's Standing Committee on Public Accounts will conduct an inquiry into the Auditor-General's report, chair of the committee Elizabeth Kikkert announced last week.
It came after the ACT Integrity Commission called on the construction industry to come forward about any improper conduct in territory government procurement processes following the release of the audit report.
The ACT government response to the audit report is going before cabinet on April 20.
