On October 30 2014, the then minister for education and training Joy Burch introduced a bill to establish an independent governing board for the Canberra Institute of Technology.

Subscribe now for unlimited access.

Login or signup to continue reading

The consequences over the past 12 years have been disastrous.

Prior to this change, CIT was led by a director who was answerable to the minister with support from an advisory council.

Now, the minister appoints board members, and the board appoints a chief executive officer to run the organisation.

The minister can issue broad policy directives, but can't require CIT to take specific actions.

Fundamentally, that means the minister is not in control of the organisation; the board is.

The cabinet submission recommending this arrangement said it would "reduce red tape and provide greater transparency".

When tabling the bill in the Assembly, Ms Burch promised "a more agile CIT" and "the full application of fiduciary responsibility to the conduct of CIT affairs."

But in the decade after the independent board was established, CIT's expenses grew by 38 per cent while course enrolments dropped 40 per cent.

The teaching workforce was reduced by 68 positions while the senior and executive management workforce more than doubled. Hardly "more agile".

In 2024, CIT's then CEO Leanne Cover was found to have engaged in serious corrupt conduct by misleading the minister and concealing information from her board in relation to $8.5 million worth of contracts for a "complexity thinker".

While under investigation by the ACT Integrity Commission, she spent two years on paid leave which, combined with her final payout, cost taxpayers more than $1.2 million.

The complexity thinker ended up getting $2.4 million in compensation, too.

In 2025, Ms Cover's replacement as CEO, Margot McNeill, was recruited while under investigation for misconduct at TAFE NSW.

After that investigation made findings against Dr McNeill a few months later, she failed to tell the CIT board and didn't mention it on a fit and proper person declaration.

Under parliamentary privilege in May, I........

© Canberra Times