Dr McNeill has repeatedly said she was under strict obligation not to share the existence of the investigation with CIT during the recruitment process.<\/p>\n
The nature of the misconduct allegations has not been made public.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2370a4f22e12fbf3ead88121bbd1d6c2.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
The inquiry found Margot McNeill should have disclosed the misconduct investigation to the CIT board in a timely manner. (ABC News: Callum Flinn)<\/p>\n
The controversy sparked a public inquiry in the ACT Legislative Assembly, with the committee handing down seven findings.<\/p>\n
It found Dr McNeill should have disclosed the information about the misconduct investigation and findings to the CIT board in a timely manner.<\/p>\n
“She actively misled the CIT board by denying that there was a finding of misconduct that had been made against her,” the committee wrote in its report.<\/p>\n
It recommended the CIT board “take all steps possible” to obtain and consider the findings of misconduct made against Dr McNeill with a view to considering whether she remains suitable to remain as CEO.<\/p>\n
The committee noted Dr McNeill initially implied the allegations against her were “based on personal grievances”.<\/p>\n
“Most troubling is the fact that when the anonymous complaint from 23 September 2025 alerted CIT to the misconduct findings, Dr McNeill denied it,” the report found.<\/p>\n
“Dr McNeill did not disclose the findings to CIT until she had received legal advice and decided to challenge the findings in court, some four months later.”<\/p>\n
The committee found the due diligence in CIT’s recruitment of Dr McNeill was ineffective.<\/p>\n
Her yearly renumeration package as CIT CEO is more than $440,000.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4a07d630f3a7bf5d6eba4c7a3f716551.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Margot McNeill was compelled to appear at the public hearing into her recruitment after declining an invitation to attend. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
CEO summoned to attend public hearing<\/p>\n
Dr McNeill declined an invitation to attend the public hearing of the inquiry into her recruitment but was compelled to appear.<\/p>\n
“The committee finds it extraordinary that a public sector employee required a summons to attend a hearing of a committee of the Legislative Assembly,” the committee wrote in its report.<\/p>\n
“As the chief executive officer of a territory authority, the CIT CEO is expected to make themselves available for scrutiny by the legislative branch of government.”<\/p>\n
In a statement, the ACT government welcomed the committee’s report and said it would provide a fulsome response after reviewing the recommendations.<\/p>\n
It has committed to undertaking a review of CIT’s governance arrangements.<\/p>\n
Independent review backs CIT hiring process<\/p>\n
A separate independent review of the recruitment process, commissioned by the ACT government, found the due diligence undertaken by CIT was “appropriate, proportionate, and consistent with accepted governance standards”.<\/p>\n
It found no evidence of procedural deficiency or probity failure in the actions of the board or the selection panel.<\/p>\n
“The review considers it regrettable that TAFE NSW did not disclose the existence of ongoing investigative processes underway at the time of reference checking and did not provide any negative commentary as to Dr McNeill’ s suitability,” the review found.<\/p>\n
ACT Greens deputy leader Jo Clay said in a statement it was in the public interest for Dr McNeill to resign “given the seriousness of the committee’s findings”.<\/p>\n
“If she does not resign, the CIT board should consider whether Dr McNeill remains a fit and proper person to be CEO for CIT and if so, the board should be transparent with the minister and community about how any decision is in the public interest,” Ms Clay said.<\/p>\n
“But this situation is not just about one person \u2014 it highlights structural problems in how our higher education institutions are governed. We need to fix the system that allowed this to occur in the first place.”<\/p>\n
The ABC has contacted Dr McNeill for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An ACT Legislative Assembly inquiry has found the Canberra Institute of Technology’s chief executive “actively misled” the institute’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2666,64,63,2667,313896,12585,2685,211625,21695,59799,19674,5315,2289,2668,313897,52893,313898,44,2733,5863,7595,80059],"class_list":["post-648698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-act","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-canberra","tag-canberra-institute-of-technology","tag-ceo","tag-chief","tag-cit","tag-executive","tag-finding","tag-inquiry","tag-investigation","tag-local-news","tag-local-stories","tag-margot-mcneill","tag-misconduct","tag-misled","tag-news","tag-nsw","tag-officer","tag-recruitment","tag-tafe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}