David Edwards, a case manager with Inanna, will lose his job when the community housing, disability and mental health support service shuts its doors in three weeks.

But he said problems with the organisation's financial management should have been picked up earlier after they missed deadline after deadline for filing mandatory financial reports.

"All of this could have been saved a long time ago. They did the wrong thing, it should have been investigated and then the organisation could have continued," Mr Edwards said.

Mr Edwards, who is also running as an independent candidate for Ginninderra in the upcoming ACT election, alleged the ACT government's community services directorate was aware the organisation had been in trouble since November last year but failed to act.

He said staff were told Inanna was in debt for "large sums of money" when the closure was announced on Wednesday, but had been largely "kept in the dark" about its money problems.

"It's been a very secretive environment. It was very toxic what was going on. There's a high-level of uncertainty," he said.

But a community services directorate spokeswoman said Inanna's annual financial report last June "demonstrated a vigorous financial position".

She said Inanna missed the reporting time frame for just one of its 2015 service delivery reports.

"Immediately following this, the community service directorate worked with Inanna to ensure services were being delivered and a compliant report was submitted," she said.

"The report was subsequently submitted and demonstrated the delivery of services beyond what was required under the contract. In fact, at no time has service delivery to clients been an issue or of concern to the directorate."

She also disputed the directorate had failed to act.

"The human services registrar identified that the governance of Inanna required improvement. Since this time, the community services directorate has been actively working with the board through various avenues to improve and resolve these issues, including meeting with and providing training to board members," she said.

Problems with Inanna first emerged when their former chief executive left the organisation earlier in the year.

Mr Edwards said staff were told at the time the CEO, who Fairfax Media has chosen not to name, had not filed reports properly for the past two years.

After he departed, the board engaged a forensic accountant and began recruitment for a new chief executive.

The new CEO began in July but left the role five weeks later after she realised the extent of Inanna's financial woes, Mr Edwards said.

Mr Edwards said she had received death threats before she quit.

"She obviously realised there was major financial mismanagement issues going on," he said.

"We had major problems and she's tried to fix those problems but then she faced some difficulties from individuals and said she'd been receiving death threats and that was very disappointing to hear."

Two weeks after she left, the board told the ACT government it could no longer govern the organisation. One week later a statutory manager was appointed.

It is understood it is the first time in Australia a government has appointed a statutory manager to a private organisation.

Just seven days into the role, the statutory manager declared the organisation was unable to operate, leaving more than 50 staff and over 200 clients in the lurch.

Several staff members Fairfax Media spoke to were too distressed about the closure to speak publicly.

Mr Edwards said many of his colleagues were not much better off than the clients they helped.

"We deal with very vulnerable people and we ourselves are vulnerable people. Some of us are struggling," Mr Edwards said.

"I live on credit cards. I work full-time and I can't afford to rent a house."

ACT housing minister Yvette Berry assured Fairfax Media staff would be paid for their work before the organisation wound up but would not be drawn to comment further

A spokeswoman from the community services directorate said it "currently appears" Inanna had enough money to pay staff until the end of September.

"We are providing financial staff support, as necessary, to ensure day-to-day functions such as petty cash and payroll continue to operate," she said.

"The community services directorate does not have a role in determining if staff entitlements will be paid, however, the statutory manager is providing additional supports and services to assist staff through these very challenging circumstances, and regular communication is being undertaken with staff."

The Canberra Liberals have condemned the ACT's governments "apparent lack of oversight" in the wake of Inanna's collapse.

Shadow community minister Nicole Lawder said Minister Berry fielded repeated warnings about the organisation.

"Inanna received a substantial amount of taxpayers' money, in the order of $2 million a year from the ACT government. Surely better oversight of this funding arrangement was necessary," Ms Lawder said.

"Why did Inanna fail to submit a community housing report on time [due in November 2015] and why did the government grant extension after extension for the submission of the report?

"Why was it not until the end of May 2016 – six months later – that the human services registrar finally issued binding instructions to Inanna?"