Rules broken in name of Vic education:IBAC

By Melissa Meehan

A hearing into allegations of corruption within the Victorian education department has heard former secretary Darrell Fraser broke many rules - but it was all in the name of education.

Former acting deputy secretary John Allman told an anti-corruption hearing on Tuesday that Mr Fraser was well known for "liberally" spending department money but doubted he ever gained personally from it.

In secret telephone recordings of Mr Allman's expletive-ridden phone conversations played during the hearing, he strongly backs his friend and maintains he's not a crook.

"Darrell did break a lot of rules, but he didn't f***ing go home with a pocket full of cash as a result of it," Mr Allman says during the November 2014 conversation.

Mr Allman also tells then Silverton Primary School vice principal John Cummins that there was "crooked stuff happening in the department".

"I know Darrell. He's not a f***ing crook. He's just a recalcitrant c***," he says.

"They'll find out that he broke every f***ing rule in the book and spent millions of dollars he shouldn't have spent, but he didn't have any personal gain there - he did it for the good of f***ing education."

Mr Allman was sensationally sacked last year when he told another anti-corruption investigation that he destroyed documents when he caught wind that the watchdog was sniffing around.

He was also questioned about the circumstances surrounding his purchase of almost $10,000 worth of CSG shares two days before the first public announcement in May 2009 of the company's involvement with the IT project.

He told the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission he bought the shares in 2009 after overhearing a conversation between Mr Fraser and colleague Ben Cushing about the project while travelling in Mr Fraser's car.

He admitted to wrongly telling a 2011 KPMG investigation into probity concerns within the department that he had bought the shares after a tip from a mate.

Tuesday was the second last day of hearings into allegations of corruption within education department ranks in relation to the Ultranet project.

The Ultranet project was supposed to connect students, teachers and parents but was plagued with issues from the start and was scrapped in 2013 after a cost blowout.

Mr Fraser is expected to be questioned on Wednesday.