Libs give leading fund-raiser water board role Criticised over appointment ... Nick di Girolamo. Photo: Wolter Peeters A PROMINENT Liberal Party figure known for his fund-raising prowess, Nick di Girolamo, was appointed to a $100,000 position on the board of a state-owned corporation by the NSW government last year. The appointment of Mr di Girolamo to the board of State Water Corporation in July came after the Coalition criticised the former Labor government's appointment to the same board of the disgraced former Health Services Union boss Michael Williamson. Mr Williamson was appointed by then treasurer Eric Roozendaal three days before the Keneally government went into caretaker mode before the March 2011 election. The Coalition's then water spokeswoman, Katrina Hodgkinson, declared it was a case of "jobs for the boys." Mr Williamson has since been charged with defrauding hundreds of thousands of dollars from the HSU. On Friday the Treasurer, Mike Baird, who is a shareholding minister for State Water, declined to say whether Mr di Girolamo's appointment - for three years at $34,300 a year - was assessed by an independent panel under rules announced by him in September 2011. He said all board appointments are made on merit and approved by cabinet but the government "does not discuss internal recruitment processes to ensure we attract high-quality candidates." Lawyers for Mr di Girolamo said his selection went through "the appropriate selection and probity process." Mr Baird was last year forced to defend the appointment of a Liberal Party donor, Roger Massy-Greene, to the board of Networks NSW on a three-year contract worth $200,000 a year. Mr di Girolamo is a major shareholder in Australian Water Holdings, whose links to the former Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid were revealed by a Herald investigation last year. The Independent Commission Against Corruption is investigating claims Mr Obeid's family conspired to make tens of millions of dollars from coal exploration licences issued by his former Labor colleague Ian Macdonald. It has also heard evidence the Obeid family had lent $3 million to Mr de Girolamo to buy shares in AWH, raising questions about the nature of their interest in the company, which has significant state contracts. The Liberal Senator Arthur Sinodinos, the chairman of AWH at the time, has been embarrassed by the revelation of the Obeids' involvement in the company. With help from Mr Obeid's family, AWH has lobbied for a $1 billion privatisation deal of Sydney Water's infrastructure work in the north-western suburbs. On Thursday night, Senator Sinodinos apologised "unreservedly" to federal Parliament for failing to declare interests in several companies, including AWH. The federal Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus, has called on the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, to take "action" over Senator Sinodinos's failure to disclose company directorships. The NSW senator has been the shadow parliamentary secretary to Mr Abbott since last September, and was chief of staff to the former prime minister John Howard. Mr Abbott said people should comply with the rules but backed his parliamentary secretary. "My understanding is that Arthur made a statement to the Senate last night and my understanding is that now he believes that all the requisite disclosures have been made," he said. Mr Abbott also rejected a suggestion that his colleague was tainted by his link to Mr Obeid. "There's a world of difference between exploiting an official position for personal gain and inadvertently overlooking to declare a couple of not-for-profit directorships," Mr Abbott said. Mr Dreyfus said the response was not strong enough.