The Education department is investigating a complaint about the procurement of highly paid advisers for its $1.6 billion research commercialisation push. The ongoing inquiry has delayed the tender by more than three months and is threatening the timely roll-out of research grants.
The nature of the complaint is unclear, but relates to a tender for the individuals that will identify university research projects, support their application for grants, and deliver merit assessment to final decision makers.
The department approached the market for the positions in May and had expected to have responses by mid-June, with offers of three-year contracts published by September. But this week it notified the market for the sixth time running that the tender remained frozen.
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