The NSW corruption watchdog is considering whether to investigate the circumstances in which former deputy premier John Barilaro was appointed to a lucrative US trade post, after an inquiry heard explosive claims a top bureaucrat said the role was “a present for someone”.
Jenny West, a former deputy secretary at government agency Investment NSW, told the parliamentary inquiry on Monday that she was offered the Manhattan-based senior trade and investment commissioner role on August 12 last year, before the offer was withdrawn in October.
Jenny West and John Barilaro.Credit:Nick Moir/Jessica Hromas
She said Investment NSW chief executive Amy Brown, who oversaw the appointment process, told her on October 14 that she would not be given the $500,000-a-year job and it would instead “be a present for someone”.
Brown also told her that “you are an extraordinary performer and I am upset that this has happened”, West told the public accountability committee inquiry into Barilaro’s appointment to the plum job.
West said she was informed during the same meeting that her current position at Investment NSW “won’t exist” in a proposed restructure. She was made redundant on November 30.
The former bureaucrat was represented at the inquiry pro bono by Sydney barrister Geoffrey Watson, SC, who was counsel assisting several landmark Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiries, and law firm Carroll & O’Dea Lawyers. Watson declined to comment on the hearing on Monday.
Barilaro, who announced his intention to quit politics on October 4 and left parliament in December, was told he had secured the trade commissioner role in April this year after a new selection process. His appointment was announced publicly on June 17.
The Herald understands the ICAC is considering whether to launch an investigation into the circumstances in which Barilaro was appointed to the job. He relinquished the role on June 30 but has insisted he followed proper process.
A spokeswoman for the ICAC said on Monday: “The commission cannot confirm or deny if it has commenced or is undertaking investigations.”
In her first public comments about the saga, West outlined the extensive interview process she undertook to secure the trade post. She said Brown congratulated her on securing the role in an August 12 text message that included emojis of the Statue of Liberty and a champagne bottle.
The text message attached a briefing note confirming her appointment that was signed by then-premier Gladys Berejiklian. Then-deputy premier Barilaro, then-treasurer Dominic Perrottet and Investment Minister Stuart Ayres were also briefed on her appointment, she said.
Brown, who has insisted that the appointment of Barilaro to the trade role was merit-based, gave evidence to the inquiry on June 29 that she made a verbal offer to West in August but “that contract was never issued, and the formal offer was never made”.
But West said on Monday that she regarded the August discussions as a formal offer. She said Brown “approved my request regarding my contract terms” on August 14.
West told the inquiry she had “never spoken publicly about this matter” and was giving evidence at the request of the upper house committee.
“For the sake of my family and their privacy I have been trying to move on from what has been a very disappointing episode in my life,” she said.
She said Brown told her during a walking meeting at Balmoral on September 17 last year that “there was a submission going up to cabinet” requesting that the state’s five senior trade commissioner roles be made into political appointments instead of public sector appointments overseen by Investment NSW. Brown told her that her appointment was “on hold” pending that cabinet decision, she said.
“Ms Brown then also told me at that meeting that the funding for my current position, the deputy secretary position within Investment NSW, had been reallocated, and I may not have that position either. That news shocked me,” she said.
“In the space of four weeks, I went from having been appointed to the role … to potentially not having a job.”
West was shown a file note she wrote after the Balmoral meeting, in which she said Brown had told her “DP”, meaning deputy premier John Barilaro, had put a submission to cabinet to get “authority for decision-making in regards to these roles”.
“I said I was horrified he could do that after going through the formal interview process panel, verbal offer and sign-off,” West’s note said. The file note went on to say: “How can he just change some things like that to put his mates in roles to help with the election?”
West told the hearing she could not remember who she was referring to at the time.
West said Brown informed her on September 27 that cabinet had “endorsed the request for senior trade commissioner roles to become political appointments”.
Brown has previously told the inquiry that she was directed to rescind West’s verbal job offer last year after the change in government policy. Brown said an adviser in the office of Barilaro, then deputy premier and trade minister, had asked her on or about September 6 about the mechanisms by which global trade commissioners could be appointed.
Brown said the adviser “made it clear that the deputy premier wanted to know the various mechanisms for [sic] which [commissioners] can be appointed”.
Brown told the inquiry the subsequent “decision of government” to convert the roles to ministerial appointments would have been conveyed to her by Barilaro’s office. However, she said the change in policy had not taken effect to date, and it was not yet clear if it would proceed.
Brown said Barilaro emerged as the lead candidate from a pool of 12 candidates and she was confident that she had fulfilled her responsibilities under the Government Sector Employment Act in appointing him to the role under the existing rules.
West is the second witness to give evidence to the upper house inquiry examining Barilaro’s controversial appointment to the job, which he created in 2019 as trade minister.
Premier Dominic Perrottet told parliament in June that Barilaro was appointed after “the first recruitment process did not identify a suitable candidate”.
West categorically disputed evidence given by Brown during a closed hearing last month – the details of which were later leaked – about alleged discrepancies in her resume and unapproved personal travel, describing it as false.
She added that she was surprised to hear claims made about her performance and that she believed she and Brown had always had a “very, very good professional relationship”.
“When I read Ms Brown’s evidence I was very disappointed … I was very shocked and upset. I’ve worked exceptionally hard for my career … so I was quite horrified by what she had said, because it is so different from who I am.”
West said she requested a 15-minute meeting with the state’s most senior public servant, Department of Premier and Cabinet secretary Michael Coutts-Trotter, on October 11, but did not receive a response.
“The next I heard from him was by way of a formal letter, terminating my employment,” she said.
West told the inquiry she immediately engaged lawyers because she was concerned about the process and that she may be made redundant “without anything”. She received a statutory 38 weeks redundancy but no further compensation.
Barilaro declined to comment on Monday.
Investment NSW general counsel Chris Carr and former staff members of Barilaro are among the next witnesses the opposition will seek to call to the inquiry.
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