Jenny West, former deputy secretary at government agency Investment NSW, is due to appear at 10.15am at the parliamentary inquiry into the circumstances in which former deputy premier John Barilaro was appointed to a lucrative New York trade post.
The inquiry has heard West was the preferred candidate for the position last year and received a verbal offer on August 12 before she was advised that the recruitment process had been halted following a change in government policy. You can read a timeline of events below.
Jenny West will appear before the inquiry today.Credit:LinkedIn
As noted previously, Barilaro announced on June 30, a day after the inquiry held its first public hearing, that he would not be taking up the position of senior trade and investment commissioner to the Americas. He maintains that he followed the proper appointment process.
Investment NSW chief executive Amy Brown, the first witness to give evidence at the public accountability committee inquiry, said at a hearing on June 29 that she was the person who appointed Barilaro to the role. She has said she is confident she fulfilled her duties under the Government Sector Employment Act.
“I am familiar with and have led multiple merit-based recruitment processes under the GSE Act, and the recruitment process for STIC [senior trade and investment commissioner] Americas was consistent with those.
“The independent Public Service Commissioner, who was on the recruitment panel with me, can confirm this,” she said.
Brown confirmed to the inquiry that West was initially the preferred candidate for the position and that she received a verbal offer on August 12 last year. However, Brown said she was directed by the government on or about September 27 “to cease the recruitment due to a change in government policy to convert the roles into statutory officers appointed by a minister” rather than the public service.
She said that she gave West “early visibility that government was considering the policy change in terms of the basis of appointment” and told her officially on October 1 that she would not be getting the role.
“I closed the recruitment process on 1 October and, by then, I, as the employer and decision-maker, had formed the view that the person who was previously the first ranked candidate was not, in fact, suitable for the role,” West said.
She did not elaborate on her reasons for forming this view in the public portion of the hearing, but the committee sat briefly in a closed session on June 29.
“I first informed the candidate on 17 September that things were likely to go this way, and it was then that the relationship between the candidate and Investment NSW became troublesome,” Brown said. “By 1 October when I, as decision-maker, officially closed the recruitment process, I was of the view that there were no suitable candidates.”
A second recruitment process was held this year and Barilaro, who announced his intention to quit politics on October 4 last year and left parliament in December, emerged as the preferred candidate from a field of 12. West did not reapply for the role.
