By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
CHANDLER Park Primary School leaders’ spending of nearly $50,000 on their corporate credit cards in one year lacked “appropriate oversight”, an anti-corruption inquiry has heard.
Principal Peter Paul and business manager Mary Hannett had racked up the bill in 2013 – almost half of which was recorded as “miscellaneous expenditure”, the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC) inquiry was told on Monday.
Mr Paul told IBAC that most spending “would have been” online payments for items such as utility bills.
“We do pay a lot of accounts on-line through credit cards.”
He said his card was used for such items as food for children at school camps, staff “team-bonding” cooking classes, topping up the school car’s petrol tank and meals out with Education Department officials.
Ian Hill QC, counsel assisting IBAC, said a 15 June audit report criticised the practice of Mr Paul’s purchasing card transactions being approved by Ms Hannett as “high” risk.
The audit recommended Mr Paul’s purchases should be instead checked by school council president Steve Barnett.
Mr Paul told the inquiry that both Mr Barnett and Ms Hannett, and two other staff members, had corporate credit cards.
He had mistakenly thought Mr Barnett had always approved his card purchases.
“Well, I thought they were, sir,” Mr Paul said when pressed on the issue.
Under questioning at IBAC on Monday, Ms Hannett – who also has a school purchasing card – agreed that she was authorising Mr Paul’s purchases and he was authorising hers.
Mr Hill asked her: “Did you not think it wise that someone independent authorise the expenditure or not?”
“All the reports went to the school board anyway, Mr Hill,” Ms Hannett replied.
At Monday’s hearing, Mr Paul admitted to deleting emails sent to and from disgraced Education Department director Nino Napoli, who was accused of running a $2.5 million fraud ring involving banker schools including Chandler Park.
“I just wanted it out of my sight,” he said of one email.
He said he’d been “totally humiliated” by some of Mr Napoli’s transactions.
This month, Mr Napoli told the inquiry that Mr Paul was a good friend “and still is. I have a lot of principals that are good friends of mine”.
On Monday, Mr Paul told the hearing through a lawyer that he “categorically denies any wrongdoing” as far as doing “anything inappropriate with his own school funds or the selective employment of school staff”.
The lawyer said Mr Paul was not aware at the time of disgraced, sacked Education Department official Nino Napoli’s “alleged activities”.
“He did what he was instructed by a senior person who he trusted and respected.
“Mr Paul received absolutely no personal benefit for operating as a banker school for Mr Napoli.”
In April, Mr Paul and Silverton Primary School principal Tony Bryant were suspended pending Education Department investigations into the IBAC inquiry’s ongoing revelations.
Both schools were known as banker schools and were used to hold Education Department funds to distribute to neighbouring schools as needed.
Mr Paul had told the inquiry on 5 May that he had no knowledge of a “farrago of untruths” that involved using those funds to purchase wine, travel and other perks for department bureaucrats.
Between 2007 and 2014, the school was invoiced for more than $150,000 for purchases from companies linked to Mr Napoli’s relatives.
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.
The inquiry continues.
