ABC awards former news boss Gaven Morris contract to advise on Parramatta relocation

Morris, the former head of news, analysis and investigations, joined international communications and strategy consultancy Bastion in December as chief executive of Bastion Transform. He left the ABC in the same month.

The ABC confirmed it has now contracted Bastion Transform to manage the process of relocating part of its newsroom to Parramatta and was close to identifying a site.

Senior ABC staff, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said there was concern about whether outsourcing the job to a former executive without going to tender was necessary and opened the ABC up to accusations of potential conflicts of interest.

The Guardian understands it is a recently set up division of the multinational consultancy firm and has just two employees at this time; Morris and Howlin.

The ABC spokesman declined to answer questions about the value of the contract and the processes followed to award it.

The ABC also did not explain the precise scope of the contract and whether it lacked the expertise internally to implement the move.

Comment was sought from Morris and from Bastion.