23/04/2026
VINDICATION: ICAC Finds SINSW Leadership Corrupt
The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has today released its final report into Operation Landan, finding that Anthony Manning (former CEO of School Infrastructure NSW) and his associate Martin Berry engaged in "serious corrupt conduct."
For the Save Bungendore Park community, this is a moment of profound vindication. For years, we argued that the leadership at SINSW was operating without transparency, ignoring the law, and treating our town with contempt.
We found clear evidence of what we believed was corrupt conduct. We always said these guys were a bunch of crooks.
And now we know the truth about the culture and corruption at the very top of that agency.
Why this is relevant to Bungendore
While the ICAC investigation focused on recruitment and procurement fraud, the players involved are the same individuals who upended our town.
Martin Berry was not just a beneficiary of Manning’s "cronyism"—he was intimately involved in the "significant change of direction" in June 2020. Records we obtained under FOI show that Berry was at the centre of the last-minute decision to target Bungendore Park.
And Manning – his boss and crony – was in charge of the agency that spent four years lying, cheating and gaslighting our community. He took such a keen interest in Bungendore that he turned up at our Court hearing, and was there again and visibly shocked when the judge ruled that his pet project was unlawful.
The Findings:
• Serious Corrupt Conduct: ICAC found Manning subverted recruitment and procurement to funnel lucrative contracts and jobs to his friends.
• Misuse of School Funds: Manning spent millions of dollars intended for building and improving schools on personal associates.
• Hiding the Truth: The agency hid the true spend on recruitment by "sourcing funds directly from school project budgets"—the very budgets meant for our children’s education.
• Silencing Dissent: Manning terminated staff who dared to question his decisions and then lied about it.
A Disaster That Was Entirely Avoidable
Today, construction is well advanced on the Elm Grove site and we can finally say Bungendore Park is safe.
However, we cannot forget the years of heartache, the legal fiasco in the Land and Environment Court, and the massive waste of taxpayer money. If the corrupt leadership at SINSW had acted with integrity in 2020 instead of pushing through a flawed plan, Bungendore’s high school students would be in their permanent classrooms today.
And if those corrupt bureaucrats and their clueless political masters hadn't continued to fight our community to save their dodgy plan until well after it had lost all credibility, we could have avoided so much pain.
The Fight for Accountability Continues
We are satisfied that Manning and Berry have been called out for their corrupt conduct, and they may yet face criminal proceedings, but this report did NOT examine the Bungendore High School fiasco.
Our question remains: When will there be a full investigation into the Bungendore High School? Why was the "change of direction" pushed so hard by people now found to have been seriously corrupt? And why, when it was clear that the plan had lost all credibility, did SINSW and the politicians waste even more time and money trying to resurrect it?
The Park is safe, but the disaster in Bungendore remains a stain on the record of School Infrastructure NSW. We deserve to know how deep this went.
And you know what? We're still waiting for an apology. Not just from Manning and Berry, but from the politicians who enabled them to start with, and then delayed far too long in fixing their mess.
You can read the media release here, with a link to the report: https://www.icac.nsw.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/2026-media-releases/2026-media-release-article
