Canberra Institute of Technology staff express fury over $8.5 million contracts

The Canberra Times has been shown the internal chat from an all-staff video conference hosted by chief executive Leanne Cover last Friday, which sought to address the controversy over the awarding of contracts to a company owned by former mountaineer and motivational speaker Patrick Hollingworth.

A number of staff raised concerns about the contracts, calling it "spin" and its jargon as "insulting".

"People are passionate about their work and students. All we have is spin," one message said.

Another said: "We keep talking about needing to be more flexible. More agile. For five years and millions of investment. At the teaching level, I see none of this."

The internal ructions over the contracts come amid falling support for the institute's senior leaders, staff survey results have shown. The latest employee survey at CIT showed a marked decrease in the confidence of staff in senior leaders over the past two years.

Results from the November 2021 survey, supplied to The Canberra Times, show only 40 per cent of staff at CIT felt they were confident to challenge the way things were done at the institute, down from 56 per cent in the 2019 survey.

Only half found they could ask senior leaders questions and get an honest answer, this was down from 62 per cent in 2019. There was also a 10 per cent drop in the number of staff who believed senior leaders were visible at CIT, down from 61 per cent in 2019.

Only 39 per cent of staff felt that CIT clearly communicated when change was proposed at the institute.

Results relating to senior leaders were some of the lowest, but staff overall responded positively to their direct managers and their teams. The survey showed that 86 per cent believed their team operated professionally and 82 per cent believed their manager encouraged collaboration within their team.

At last week's all-staff message, it is understood attendees were told all procurement processes had been handled appropriately but questions and concerns from the staff raised in the accompanying web chat were ignored and not addressed.

One wrote: "It's not about the budget. It's about the contract, the crazy speak and the negative public perception that you have contributed to. We don't have proper access to toilets, we have students living in cars, coming to class hungry. Please use the skills and talents we have at CIT."

THE STORY SO FAR:

A former CIT staff member told The Canberra Times about a culture of "fear and gaslighting" at the institute and that staff "just learned that to speak against Hollingworth's expertise and how much it cost was forbidden".

Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee said she had also been inundated by staff at CIT who feared speaking out against the contracts.

"What we are hearing from terrified CIT staff and former staff is there definitely a culture of fear, of secrecy and of retribution," she said.

"These staff members and former staff members fear for their jobs and fear for their reputations."

When CIT was asked about staff expressing fears of speaking out against the contracts to Mr Hollingworth, a spokesman said there were a number of avenues for staff to provide feedback.

"The executive and senior management have an open door policy and there are a number of avenues for staff to ask questions and provide feedback about any issues," he said.

Mr Hollingworth has been awarded more than $8.5 million in contracts from CIT since 2017. The contracts have been for various work including CEO mentoring, delivering workshops to staff, speaking and developing strategies to help the institute transform.

Mr Hollingworth has not spoken publicly since last week's revelations and has not responded to requests from The Canberra Times to comment.

We've made it a whole lot easier for you to have your say. Our new comment platform requires only one log-in to access articles and to join the discussion on The Canberra Times website. Find out how to register so you can enjoy civil, friendly and engaging discussions. See our moderation policy here.