By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
A KEYSBOROUGH principal has told an anti-corruption inquiry that he had no knowledge at the time of a “farrago of untruths” involving the purchase of wine, travel and other perks for Department of Education bureaucrats.
Peter Paul fronted the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission on Tuesday 5 May, days after being stood down as Chandler Park Primary School’s principal over the hearing’s allegations.
The school, known as a ’banker school’, had been used to hold Education Department funds which were then to be distributed to neighbouring schools as needed.
However it has been alleged that the funds were misused by Education Department public servants to pay for their own perks such as travel, furniture and wine.
Mr Paul told IBAC’s Operation Ord inquiry that he knowingly signed off on $1000-plus invoices for wine which was described as “for professional development”.
The wine was paid for out of a school account funded with Education Department monies by the department’s recently-sacked school resources director Nino Napoli.
Mr Paul said he “implicity trusted” Mr Napoli, and didn’t ask questions such as why the wine was being delivered to Mr Napoli’s home address.
“If Mr Napoli was running conferences, seminars, all those issues that he said, the answer could be that is possible (the wine was for professional development),” Mr Paul said.
“I paid on the invoice. I respect the man.
“I was not aware of what the details were until I started to get the papers this week and find that there were fabrications there of those companies, and my last visit to IBAC.”
The school was invoiced for more than $150,000 for purchases from companies linked to Mr Napoli between 2007 and 2014.
In that period, the school had bought nearly $30,000 of Italian wine from Mr Paul’s wine-merchant son Matthew Paul allegedly for the benefit of education bureaucrats.
Mr Paul said there was no accounting of the transactions done at the school but stressed that none of his school’s money was used.
He was unaware of a department 2010-’11 audit that damned the banker school practice, he told the hearing.
“There is no doubt in my mind there has been a farrago of untruths that need to be unpacked.”
On Wednesday, the school’s unqualified business manager of 13 years Mary Hannett told the hearing she had questioned Mr Paul why purchasing wine was considered “professional development”.
She was told it was “because that’s what I was told the wine was for”.
“I questioned why it would be purchasing wine and that’s why I had a discussion with Mr Paul.
“And Mr Paul spoke with Mr Napoli and – who said that what … we’re doing was under Jeff Rosewarne’s jurisdiction to do so.”
Mr Rosewarne, a former Education Department acting secretary, had told IBAC on 28 April that he had stored 186 Italian wine bottles in his home garage, that were bought by the school from Mr Paul’s wine-merchant son.
In 2010, the school bought nearly $5000 of office furniture that was delivered to Mr Rosewarne’s home.
The purchase was allegedly falsely invoiced as “printing” costs.
Mr Paul was stood down by the Education Department pending an internal investigation into allegations raised at IBAC on 28 April.
