InDaily revealed on Wednesday that the University of Adelaide and University of South Australia have appointed Deloitte as its “integration and transformation partner” to work on creating the newly merged Adelaide University.

The contract, understood to be worth millions of dollars, was awarded after a tender process spanning from July to September.

Deloitte’s appointment comes after the chief executive of Deloitte Asia-Pacific, David Hill, left the University of Adelaide’s governing council in August this year.

Hill, a former deputy chancellor, had voted to support the merger at the university’s governing council meeting on June 29. He had been a council member since January 2014 and has been with Deloitte since 1995.

Both the University of Adelaide and Deloitte said the firm won the tender through a “rigorous” process which had been subject to high probity standards. Deloitte said any suggestion Hill was conflicted was “wrong and misinformed” and that he had not been involved in the winning bid.

Later on Wednesday, UniSA vice-chancellor David Lloyd said the procurement process was run by university management and “completely independent” of the respective university councils.

Speaking before the parliamentary inquiry into the merger, Lloyd said: “It should be recorded that the institutions have jointly procured the services of Deloitte, it’s not a single procurement.”

He also highlighted that the universities had flagged in their transition plan, released in July, that they intended to procure an external firm to manage the integration process.

UniSA vice-chancellor David Lloyd and University of Adelaide vice chancellor Peter Høj in a joint video presentation about the merger last December. Photo: University of Adelaide/Facebook

“It was made very clear that an integration management partner was going to be required due to the complexity of the undertaking,” Lloyd said.

“The institutions, on passage of the resolution to progress the creation of the institution with the support of the government, in July began a process to secure that through an invited tender process.”

There were 13 participants in the tender process, Lloyd said, with an approval body set up to manage the procurement.

Two members of the university councils were on the approval body, Lloyd said, neither of which were Hill.

“The process was completely independent of the councils – it was run by the management,” he said.

“We had an independent probity advisor and an independent procurement advisor, who were contracted by the institutions and to the best of my knowledge over 4500 hours of evaluation was conducted by over 20 staff, all independent of the councils.

“They made a recommendation to (University of Adelaide vice-chancellor) Peter (Høj) and to myself as the chief executives of the two organisations to procure the service.”

Asked by Greens MLC Robert Simms if they were both satisfied that the conflict-of-interest process they had in place was followed, Lloyd said: “In total.”

Deloitte has other relationships with the University of Adelaide, including a program called “The Academy by Deloitte” in which the consulting firm offers work experience and paid internship opportunities to University of Adelaide students and co-delivers undergraduate elective courses. 

The union representing University of Adelaide staff on Tuesday raised concerns about Deloitte’s appointment and whether it constituted a conflict of interest.

The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) SA division has written to University of Adelaide chancellor Catherine Branson asking a series of questions about the process used to appoint the consulting firm.

In particular, it asked what information Deloitte might have had about the merger before the tender process begun.

A spokesperson for Deloitte said yesterday that Hill had “no involvement with the evaluation of proposals or the decision to appoint Deloitte”.

“Mr Hill was not involved with Deloitte’s proposal and will not have any involvement with the work to be completed by Deloitte Australia,” the spokesperson said.

Earlier in the committee hearing, vice-chancellor Høj was asked whether Hill recused himself from discussions about a potential merger.

Høj replied: “First of all, the person in question is no longer a member of the University of Adelaide council.

“As all properly run governing bodies do, they always start a meeting where people are asked whether they have anything to add to the known interests that they have – the known conflicts of interest.

“And they’re asked to always indicate if something comes up in discussion where they realise they have a conflict of interest. So that happens at all times.

“So, in discussions about any matter, a person of proper standing, and the person in question is of very proper standing, would have recused themselves from any decision making in respect to that.”