Sacked Parramatta Council boss admits lying to lord mayor in long day at ICAC

Former Parramatta Council boss Gail Connolly has admitted to lying to the lord mayor and was accused of sending a false report to the corruption watchdog, as her appearance at an anti-corruption inquiry came to an end.

On Connolly’s seventh and final day as a witness at the Independent Commission Against Corruption, the sacked Parramatta chief executive was accused of “historical revisionism” as she explained the reason she sent an anonymous email she wrote purporting to expose fraud and corruption at the council.

Under cross-examination from the council’s barrister, Arthur Moses, SC, Connolly was asked about an email sent to the lord mayor at the time, who asked if she had seen the anonymous email. She told the mayor she had not.

Connolly was also accused of lying to the ICAC when she referred concerns to the watchdog about “fraud and corruption” by former staffer turned council candidate Justin Mulder. Moses said she misled the ICAC in several ways, including that she did not identify herself as the author of the anonymous email.

The ICAC’s public inquiry had been slated for four weeks but stretched into week six. It is investigating whether former Parramatta staff members, central among them Connolly, misused public funds by having staff leave through deeds of release (agreements made between staff and the council upon a departure), subverted the council’s recruitment and other processes, disclosed confidential information to third parties, and spied on staff and a councillor.

During an at-times testy cross-examination, Moses invoked Monty Python, to which Connolly replied: “It’s the Spanish Inquisition,” a reference to the famous recurring skit about the long-running tribunals which used anonymous accusations and coerced confessions.

Moses accused Connolly of trying to use the anonymous email to undermine Mulder’s campaign for the council, and to drive a wedge between him and councillor Kellie Darley. Connolly denied this.

Moses asked if the email was designed to undermine his candidacy given his position on the council could have attempted the make-up of votes in the event of a plan to terminate her employment; Connolly denied this.

Moses then asked what Connolly meant on Tuesday when she claimed Darley had been working in “collaboration” with The Sydney Morning Herald (in fact, Connolly said there was “collusion”).

“I knew she was speaking with The Sydney Morning Herald, and I knew she was working with the Herald across a range of matters,” Connolly said. “Councillor Darley had made it clear … that she was working with The Sydney Morning H