Vic officials treated to overseas junket

Two Victorian Education Department officials were treated to a lavish, all expenses paid trip to New York to spruik IT software used by Victorian schools to the company that designed it.

The trip highlighted some curious relationships between officials and IT companies at an anti-corruption inquiry on Tuesday into past and present education department bureaucrats and the now scrapped Ultranet IT project.

Former department secretary Darrell Fraser and offsider Judy Petch travelled to the US in 2006 to meet senior staff at software company Oracle at a three-day conference, the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission heard on Tuesday.

They visited two schools, in New York and Long Island, to talk up the IT system.

The trip also included five-star accommodation, a Broadway show and dinner at a top New York restaurant.

Counsel assisting Ian Hill QC told the IBAC hearing on Tuesday he failed to see the benefit from the overseas trip to Victorian schools.

Frank Aloisio, who had worked as a consultant for both the department and Oracle, told the hearing Mr Fraser saw untapped potential in Oracle's intranet software Learning 360 and wanted to make the US firm's hierarchy aware of that.

Mr Aloisio, who had previously worked at Glen Waverley Secondary College with Mr Fraser, paid for the pair's accommodation, which he later billed to Oracle, totalling almost $5000 for two nights.

"Darrell said if Oracle was successful, it would benefit Victorian schools too," Mr Aloisio told the hearing.

Mr Hill said he could understand how Oracle benefited from the trip, but not how selling Oracle to American schools would benefit Victoria's education department.

"It doesn't make any sense," he said.

Oracle had previously partnered with Glen Waverley Secondary College, while Mr Fraser was principal, to design a school intranet that could be rolled out across the state.

The company was not awarded the contract for Ultranet.

Mr Hill also questioned why emails sent between Mr Fraser and IT companies bidding for the Ultranet project were sent from fake email accounts during the tender process.

One email, he said, was even sent to Mr Fraser's daughter from a Hotmail account belonging to former Oracle executive Greg Martin setting out reasons why Oracle shouldn't be awarded the tender.

He pushed for Cinglevue, a company he was the director of with Mr Aloisio, to be awarded the contract instead.

Cinglevue was acquired by CSG, the company that was later awarded the Ultranet project.

The hearing, held at the County Court of Victoria before commissioner Stephen O'Bryan, continues.