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Former Palmerston Regional School director Hylton Hayes was awarded the $19,000 contract two weeks before then-education minister Eva Lawler left the portfolio during a Cabinet reshuffle last month. Mr Hayes is a friend and campaign volunteer of Ms Lawlers.
Education Department sources told the ABC that Mr Hayes employment was ended in 2016, and he was also reprimanded in 2012 for engaging in disparaging emails about a teacher in East Arnhem Land that resulted in an undisclosed payout by the department.
Independent MLA Gerry Wood told ABC Radio Darwin on Monday that the lack of a competitive process made it look like "jobs for the boys and girls" — a practice Labor pledged to end when elected in August 2016.
"Jobs should be given on merit, not on party loyalty or friendship," Mr Wood said.
"That merit needs to be seen in an open and transparent manner, and if they cant do that, they can only blame themselves when people start to ask questions about how people get these jobs."
Ms Lawler declined to answer questions about her friendship with Mr Hayes, but said in a statement to the ABC that she is not involved in awarding contracts.
"As Minister I do not have a say in employment or in the procurement of contracted officers by the public service," she said.
"These are matters for the chief executive and their delegates, and questions relating to those arrangements should be directed to the department."
Hayes a wonderful person, Lawler says
An Education Department spokeswoman said that although the consultancy contract to investigate student enrolment in East Arnhem Land was classified as a Tier 2 contract, which typically requires three quotes, Mr Hayes company was given the contract directly.
"An exemption was approved in accordance with the Northern Territory Governments procurement rules to obtain one quotation only, from [Hylton Hayes Consultancy]," the spokeswoman said.
"A request was issued to HHC for the quotation and upon its receipt, the quotation was assessed by the assessment panel against the prescribed criteria and weightings."
The spokeswoman said the contract was not advertised and no competing quotes were sought because the assessment panel independently determined that Mr Hayes was suitably qualified based on his previous experience in East Arnhem Land schools.
She said the Minister was not involved in the decision to award the contract.
Ms Lawler worked with Mr Hayes when she was deputy chief executive of the Education Department in 2012 and praised him in her maiden speech to Parliament as a "wonderful person" who "assisted and encouraged" her during the 2016 election.
Mr Hayes was seen wearing a red shirt inside a Labor electorate tent at the Palmerston markets on June 8, just days before he was officially awarded the contract on June 13.
Mr Wood said exemptions from seeking competing quotes clouded the contract awarding process.
"If you believe in the concept of open and transparent government, you need to show that … by not giving exemptions to tenders," he said.
Ms Lawler was moved out of the education portfolio on June 26, as part of a larger NT Government reshuffle, and is now Minister for the Infrastructure and Environment.
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