Schools Infrastructure then commissioned an outside consultancy firm to provide “upside” data, she said. Those projections were based on “highly unlikely” assumptions including increasing birth rates and major changes to migration.

Haque told the commission Manning “didn’t have to explain” why he was unhappy with the smaller population growth.

“It was well understood by myself and him … a lower figure would mean it would be much more difficult to get funding from Treasury in terms of the capital works [budget],” she said.

Part of the tension, she said, was she wanted to provide more granular data. Despite a statewide fall in the population, there had been “huge growth” in north and south-west Sydney.

Haque said that Manning wanted statewide data that she said was “misleading and incorrect” and “would do a disservice to where we need to spend money”.

On Thursday, the inquiry also heard evidence from Tony McCabe, a former executive director inside the Education Department who moved to School Infrastructure NSW when it was established by the then-minister Rob Stokes in 2017.

McCabe alleged Manning quickly began bringing in “friends and colleagues” to the agency. He said he was “astounded” by the rates of pay some of them requested, and that it was common for new contract work to “just appear”.

McCabe recalled one case in which Manning instructed him to find space for a contractor without a specific job in mind. “It wasn’t do we need him, it was ‘you’ll find him a role’,” he said.

In another, he requested a procurement advisory join the agency at short notice, a step McCabe said was outside the agency’s guidelines.

“I think I remember at the time thinking how inappropriate and almost comical that you would procure a procurement adviser outside procurement guidelines,” he said.

McCabe said in his first interaction with Manning, the new CEO told him the minister’s office had “referred to me as a ‘no’ man, and he was going to turn me into a ‘yes’ man”. He left the agency, he said, after a period of “ongoing harassment”, “intimidation” and “humiliation” by a contract worker Manning brought in above him.

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One friend of Manning’s, Stuart Suthern-Brunt, was employed in a consultancy role and was paid $2800 a day, or the equivalent of $644,000 a year.

Haque told ICAC she was aware Manning and Suthern-Brunt had been “friends for a long time” and “knew each other from their time in Europe”.

The Herald has previously revealed that ICAC was investigating the awarding of a $39 million “Manufacturing for Schools” contract to build pre-fabricated classrooms.

The ICAC has previously heard that after he left School Infrastructure, Suthern-Brunt was involved in a consortium with construction firm APP, which won the contract.

Haque told the hearing she met with APP before the contract was awarded, and thought they were “very knowledgeable” about School Infrastructure’s “technology and systems” including “some of our shortcomings and challenges”.

Asked by Commissioner Paul Lakatos SC whether it was an “unusual level of knowledge”, she said: “Yes.”

The contract has since been cancelled, and the Herald has previously revealed the head of another firm, manufacturing software company PT Blink, Murray Ellen, had raised concerns about it due to its similarity to his own technology.

Haque told the hearing she had attended a meeting with Ellen in 2020 at which she was briefed on their technology, which she understood to be commercial in confidence.

She said she briefed Suthern-Brunt after the meeting.

“He was very interested. He made notes, but I just gave him my view of what I thought it was, and he didn’t disagree or provide any commentary; he just said thank you,” she said.

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