The NSW ICAC has uncovered a web of conflicting interests at the University of Wollongong, involving its executives and consultants KordaMentha. James Guthrie and Adam Lucas report.
In mid-2026, the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) launched a major public investigation into alleged corruption at the University of Wollongong (UOW). The investigation has uncovered the extraordinary hubris and a sense of entitlement evident in the employment of UOW’s former Interim Vice-Chancellor, Professor John Dewar, and the role played in that appointment by former UOW Chancellor, Michael Still.
When Dewar submitted a proposal for the University of Wollongong’s top job on 9 May 2024, he was not just applying for a position. He was proposing a commercial arrangement that directly benefited the consultancy firm, KordaMentha, in which he’d recently become a partner.
In that proposal, Dewar wrote to Still, “I propose that, linked to my appointment as Interim VC, KordaMentha be engaged to conduct a rapid diagnostic of the current state of the university’s operations.”
The proposal was brutally simple: Dewar would become Interim Vice-Chancellor for $1m a year, and KordaMentha would get a lucrative consulting contract. The estimated cost of the initial “diagnostic”: $250,000 to $300,000.
By the time KordaMentha finished its work, it had been paid nearly $3.8m.
A “package deal”
Dewar’s motivation was unashamedly self-interested. In emails shown to ICAC, he told his boss at KordaMentha, Henriette Rothschild, he was “not interested” in taking the UOW job if there was “no benefit” to his firm. On 21 May 2024, Dewar wrote to Rothschild, “There’s a risk that this would become just a secondment to UOW with no benefit to KM, which I’m not interested in.”
He wanted a “package deal” which entailed appointing him as Interim VC and supported by KordaMentha staff. Under questioning, Dewar conceded he wanted his appointment to “provide some benefit to KordaMentha as well.”
Chancellor Still was reluctant to have “a team of consultants as the vice-chancellor”, so Dewar revised his proposal to separate his employment from the consultants. But he remained confident KordaMentha would get the work.
And he had good reason to be, given the deeply flawed process that led to its appointment. On 21 May 2024, Still told Dewar the procurement process would be slanted in KordaMentha’s favour, confirming what ICAC has since established: the tender was never a fair contest.
Dewar promptly emailed his boss Henriette Rothschild, “Michael says they have to go through a procurement process to avoid any probity concerns about the awarding of the diagnostic to KM. He says they are running it in
a way that makes it very likely we will win it.
The other contenders were Deloitte “who won’t get it” and a smaller outfit called Partners in Performance that had previously done work that UOW was allegedly “not happy with”. Both firms effectively acted as placeholders to provide the appearance of probity.
Still further suggested that once KordaMentha won the contract, the “continuing support work could be done as an extension” of the initial diagnostic, meaning his firm could extract even more fees with less scrutiny.
Dewar told ICAC this was the message he received: “the procurement process was going to be designed in a way that KordaMentha would win the work.”
That was a direct communication from Chancellor Michael Still to Dewar.
Legal advice ignored
The University’s own General Counsel, Rebecca Lim, had warned Still on 14 May 2024 that any engagement of KordaMentha needed to be “entirely separate” from Dewar’s appointment. She advised that Dewar should agree to “not play a role in seeking to have the University engage the consulting services of KordaMentha.” Still ignored that advice.
On 24 May 2024, three days before the contract was finalised, Dewar sent Still a draft “scope of services” for how KordaMentha might conduct the review. Still then inserted the word “diagnostic” into the formal Request for Proposal – language lifted directly from Dewar’s draft.
When counsel assisting Emma Bathurst asked Still whether this “triggered some alarm bells” given the legal advice about conflicts of interest, he claimed he couldn’t recall reading the draft, although he conceded the wording was “similar in some ways, for sure.” In other words, the Chancellor of a major university had no memory of a procurement document he himself had initiated and overseen.
Commissioner Paul Lakatos later cut through Still’s defence directly. Throughout his evidence, Still maintained an artificial distinction between approving work and approving payment. Lakatos twice challenged this, describing the arrangement as “work done by KordaMentha for money earned by KordaMentha.” Still’s response was telling: “I didn’t connect them, I’m sorry.” It was a failure so fundamental it raises obvious questions about his fitness to oversee such processes.
The KordaMentha chainsaw
KordaMentha won the contract. The initial $300,000 diagnostic became a $3.8m transformation program. The firm’s recommendations led to more than 200 job losses, including over 130 academics, along with the programs, research and disciplines in which they’d all been engaged. And all this for a supposed reduction of $21 million in annual salary expenditure. On top of the 400 people who lost their jobs in the wake of COVID,
UOW has sacked almost a quarter of its workforce over five years.
Dewar admitted under oath his conduct was “contrary to the terms” of the secondary employment letter he had signed on 3 June 2024, which explicitly barred him from playing any role in seeking UOW work for KordaMentha.
He conceded he had used information obtained “by reason of your negotiations and ultimate appointment as Interim Vice-Chancellor to gain an advantage for KordaMentha.” When counsel assisting told him that meant “the tender process was tainted”, Dewar agreed.
Still resigned as Chancellor days before he was due to give evidence. ICAC continues to investigate whether he “partially exercised his official functions” by failing to manage the conflict of interest.
The “package deal” delivered exactly what Dewar wanted. But the price to UOW, its staff, students, and the broader community it exists to serve, may prove far higher than anyone anticipated.
This is the Big Four’s “land and expand” strategy in action: land a contract through a rigged process, then relentlessly expand its scope. Meanwhile, the public institution supposedly being served pays the price in money, jobs, and public trust.
Wollongong University Inc. Profit over jobs as consultants prosper
James Guthrie AM is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Accounting and Corporate Governance at Macquarie University. He is the joint founding editor of the Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, which has been consistently ranked in the top five journals in his field.
Adam Lucasis is an honorary senior fellow at the University of Wollongong and a founding member of Academics for Public Universities and Public Universities Australia. Prior to working at UOW, he was a researcher and policy analyst in the NSW Cabinet Office and the Departments of State and Regional Development, Aboriginal Affairs and Housing.