At least that was the gist of the criticism directed at him by the Independent Commission Against Corruption in its Operation Spicer report on illegal fundraising by NSW Liberals.

Perhaps the kindest thing that could be said of his performance at ICAC's Spicer hearings and before that the Credo investigation into Australian Water Holdings (where he was a director and later chairman), is that Sinodinos probably should not have a job that involves handling money.

Memory aids would be useful as well – perhaps a seeing-eye dog, if he had taken the Health Ministry, for those days when it was tricky to find his way back to the office.

He missed or forgot so much, as ICAC discovered. He could recall very little, for example, of meeting an AWH investor, Rod de Aboitiz, who warned him that AWH faced insolvency, or details that the failing company was still paying $10,200 a month for a corporate box at Stadium Australia.

"Well, if it was ever subsequently mentioned to me it was in one ear and out the other," he testified.

Sinodinos was also oblivious, despite being AWH chairman, that the company was donating tens of thousands of dollars to the NSW Liberal Party, even though he was chairman of the NSW Libs finance committee at the same time.

He said that it was not his role to be involved in the details, so he was not aware that the largest donor was the Free Enterprise Foundation in Canberra, which channelled $629,000 in illegal donations from property developers to the NSW Libs for the 2011 election.

ICAC Commissioner Megan Latham found his evidence here "difficult to accept" because he was actively involved in fund-raising with a role second only to Paul Nicolaou, the chairman of the Liberal's fund-raisng body, the Millenium Forum.


But Latham found there was "insufficient evidence" to conclude others in the Liberal hierarchy besides Nicolaou and state finance director Simon McInnes were knowingly involved in channelling funds through the FEF.

Whatever Sinodinos's knowledge, the record shows that it was on his watch as chairman of the NSW finance committee that 11 state Liberals broke the fund-raising laws, and the party took more than $600,000 in illegal donations.

Thankfully, Premier Mike Baird's rushed restructure of ICAC last year, pushing out Commissioner Latham, has limited any findings on Sinodinos's credit by Latham's replacement, who will not have been present at the Credo hearings.

The Minister is recalled but cannot recollect. Such concerns are surely unpardonable.