By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
A KEYSBOROUGH principal has been stood down and investigated by the Education Department following allegations at an anti-corruption inquiry.
Peter Paul was suspended soon after he and his Chandler Park Primary School were named in ongoing Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) hearings on Tuesday 28 April.
The inquiry – titled Operation Ord – is investigating a “banker school” scheme set up for school activities that allegedly funded wine, hotel stays and other perks for Victorian education public servants.
During the hearings it was revealed that Mr Paul had authorised nearly $30,000 of wine purchases from his wine merchant son’s company Trembath and Taylor for department bureaucrats from 2007 to 2014.
Former Education Department acting secretary Jeff Rosewarne told the inquiry on the Tuesday that he had stored 186 Italian wine bottles – worth up to $83 each – in his home garage.
The school had bought the bottles for $7325 as well as another two-dozen bottles which were delivered to the home of the department’s school resources director Nino Napoli, who has since been sacked.
Mr Rosewarne told the hearing that the wine was for “departmental purposes” only – to be consumed at work functions and used for gifts – but wasn’t invoiced to the department to avoid media scrutiny.
“Mr Paul made the offer that if I wanted to purchase wine on behalf of the department that his son was in the business and would be happy to supply that wine,” Mr Rosewarne told the Tuesday hearing.
“Mr Paul would be well aware of the sensitivities and issues associated with public servants purchasing alcohol,” he said.
Mr Rosewarne said he was “surprised” that the wine invoices didn’t identify him nor the department as recipients.
He said he requested that the department reimburse the school though he couldn’t say whether the payment was made.
“My understanding is those transactions would have been transparent to the school council at Chandler Park Primary School.”
In 2010, the school bought nearly $5000 of office furniture delivered to Mr Rosewarne’s home. The purchase was allegedly falsely invoiced as “printing” costs.
Mr Rosewarne told the hearing he believed he would have kept Mr Paul and the school’s council “in the dark” about the purchase’s true nature.
“My only rationale would have been to ensure the principal was not asked questions by the school council that he could not answer,” he said.
Mr Rosewarne, who is currently director of the Catholic Education Office, said he couldn’t recall if the department had reimbursed the school for the purchases.
The department’s south east regional director John Allman has been sacked after admitting to the hearing on Wednesday that he destroyed financial documents involving Silverton Primary School in Noble Park.
The inquiry heard a taped conversation in which Mr Allman told Mr Napoli not to tell IBAC investigators about the Silverton arrangement.
Mr Allman told the inquiry that Mr Napoli granted “several hundred thousand dollars” – that was additional to the normal student resource package – to the school over several years.
The funds were not of direct benefit to the school but could be used for projects “at the whim or at the request” of south east regional office executives, Mr Allman told the hearing.
Mr Allman said he couldn’t find records of the dealings, which he thought would be kept at home.
Later in the hearing, he conceded he tore up and threw out “a lot of documents at my home” – some into a bin at a Bunnings store – soon after a visit from eight IBAC investigators.
“I went into somewhat of a panic after eight IBAC officers visited my home.
“I did have something to hide.
“The banker school arrangement has never been a legitimate practice of the Education Department,” he said.
Mr Allman said the funds were used to buy wine for staff functions but weren’t bought from the son of Chandler Park Primary principal Peter Paul.
He denied the funds were used for his personal expenses.
An Education Department spokesman said the department was “deeply concerned by what we heard at IBAC”.
Chandler Park’s assistant principal Naomi Reed will act as principal during the investigation into Mr Paul.
In a letter to the school’s parents on 28 April, the department stated: “We must stress that allegations are exactly that.”
The Journal was unable to contact Mr Paul for comment.
The hearings continue.
