Pearce sacked as NSW IT boss

NSW Finance Minister Greg Pearce has been sacked after failing to declare a conflict of interest in a board appointment to Sydney Water.

Former NSW Finance Minister Greg Pearce.

NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell today announced Pearce would be immediately stood down from his role. Pearce did not disclose that his wife was employed by a person appointed to the board of Sydney Water last year, O'Farrell said.

Pearce's wife Shauna Jarrett is the assistant group secretary for Sydney University's general counsel Richard Fisher. Fisher was appointed to the Sydney Water board in January last year until December 2014.

O’Farrell said Pearce, who through the Finance portfolio held responsibility for state government IT, had been advised of the decision to remove him today.

"I made clear what I was proposing to do. Mr Pearce was clearly disappointed and unhappy and accepted my decision." 

"I mean it when I say I expect the highest standards from members of my government."

Pearce will be replaced by current Minister for Ageing and Disability Services Andrew Constance (below), who will be sworn in as the new minister for Finance and Services tomorrow.

Constance was a member of the Standing Committee on Broadband in Rural and Regional Communities in 2007 but his background is mainly in the areas of disability and ageing.

The move represents a clean slate for IT in NSW after O'Farrell recently replaced former state CIO Michael Coutts-Trotter with former director-general of the Attorney General's department Laurie Glanfield.

Coutts-Trotter was moved to head up the Department of Family and Community Services.