Former NSW deputy premier John Barilaro (Image: AAP/Joel Carrett)

Peter Minucos, former political adviser to NSW deputy premier John Barilaro, has told NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) that he could not remember why he had been in direct contact with external consultants working on a business case for the proposed grant of $5.5 million to a project in the electorate of former NSW MP Daryl Maguire. 

Asked if he had been directed to take this step — unusual for a political adviser — or had “taken it upon himself”, he replied that he couldn’t remember the circumstances.

In 2017 Minucos was a senior policy officer in the office of Barilaro, with a focus on regional development and infrastructure. He now works in the private sector and is not accused of any wrongdoing.

Scott Robertson, counsel assisting ICAC, asked Minucos why he took this action rather than communicate with the Department of Regional NSW, which was working with the consultants on the business case for the grant application from the Australian Clay Target Association.

“Was any issue raised as to the appropriateness or otherwise of you as political adviser making direct contact?” Robertson asked.

Minucos said that he did not recall this issue being raised or that he had been told to “pull (his) head in”. 

ICAC has heard that a revised business case in 2017 examining the benefit-to-cost ratio of the proposed grant initially estimated it at 0.88, meaning that the cost would outweigh the economic benefit. A ratio above one was required to justify spending the money.

Chris Hanger, deputy secretary in the Department of Regional NSW, told ICAC last week that Minucos was “heavily involved in the development of the project, in particular the advice back to the consultants”.  

This behaviour was “peculiar”, Hanger said. Eventually his staff told Barilaro’s office that this “wasn’t … where or how they should be providing advice”, he told ICAC.

Department of Regional NSW secretary Gary Barnes said Minucos “inserted himself into a process that typically public servants would have taken control of”. 

Week two of ICAC’s Operation Keppel has started relatively quietly. Barilaro, the former deputy premier of NSW, will be giving evidence later today. He is not accused of any wrongdoing.

ICAC is investigating the circumstances under which a total of $35.5 million was advanced to two projects in Maguire’s Wagga Wagga electorate at a time when he was in an undisclosed “close personal relationship” with NSW treasurer and then premier Gladys Berejiklian. 

Former premier Mike Baird, serving minister Stuart Ayres and a raft of senior bureaucrats have given evidence that that relationship should have been disclosed and that they would have treated the grant applications differently had they known. 

Nigel Blunden, director of strategy for then-premier Mike Baird, said in a memo to Baird in late 2016 that the proposal “goes against all the principles of sound economic management”.

Maguire will give evidence on Wednesday. 

Berejiklian, who abruptly resigned from NSW Parliament two weeks ago, has denied all wrongdoing and will give evidence on Thursday and Friday this week. She told ICAC late last year that she had been in a relationship with Maguire, who left NSW Parliament following a separate ICAC inquiry.