Disgraced former mining minister Ian Macdonald didn't deliberately withhold documents about a controversial coal mining licence, a parliamentary committee has found.
The privileges committee investigated a 2009 order for papers on a Mt Penny coal mining licence, which the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) later found had been allotted corruptly.
The committee laid the blame on "critical administrative errors" by a number of staff, in particular the director-general of the Department of Industry and Investment.
But there was no evidence this was done deliberately by department staffers, committee chairman Trevor Khan told parliament.
"While the committee did not find the evidence of Mr Macdonald reliable or persuasive, the evidence of other more reliable witnesses is that Mr Macdonald did not play a role in responding to the order for papers, simply because he did not have time," he said on Thursday.
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The committee's report backs up a former Maddocks Lawyers inquiry into the bungled process, which also found bureaucrats may have unknowingly withheld documents by rushing to respond to the order.
The ICAC found the former Labor minister had rigged a 2008 tender process for a coal licence in the Bylong Valley, which financially benefited the family of his then-colleague Eddie Obeid.
