Land Development Agency chief executive David Dawes has defended his handling of the Glebe Park land purchase under questioning from the Liberals' Alistair Coe about whether the agency's board had been properly informed.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mr Dawes has already said he made the decision to buy the land himself under his delegated power, only informing the board in September, after the event.
The purchase has attracted controversy, given the agency paid $4.2 million in the face of two widely different valuations, one of which put its value at $1 million and the other at $3.6-$3.8 million plus GST. The land was bought from developers Graham Potts and Barry Morris.
Mr Coe asked Mr Dawes in estimates hearings whether he had told the board about both valuations for the block, the lower from Opteon and the higher from Colliers nine months later.
Mr Dawes said he recalled discussing the Colliers valuation with the board, but would need to check the board papers for a complete answer to the question.
Mr Coe also questioned the authorisation for the purchase.
Later, Mr Dawes told The Canberra Times that "strategic land acquisitions" were governed by the Planning and Development (Land Acquisition Policy Framework) Direction 2014, which required purchases below $5 million to be agreed by the board and advised to the minister, and purchases between $5 million and $20 million to be agreed by the chief minister and treasurer, and requiring a business case.
But the Glebe Park purchase was not a strategic acquisition but a "project land acquisition" under section 56 of the Financial Management Act 1996 and section 41 of the Planning and Development Act 2007.
Section 56 covers the "responsibilities of governing boards of territory authorities", and deals with the need to ensure spending and payments are "properly authorised and correctly made", without being specific.
Section 41 says the land agency may delegate its functions to a staff member.
Mr Dawes said under those delegations, the chief executive's spending was unlimited, subject to needing board approval for spending of $10 million or more.
The purchase was a "project cost" for the City to the Lake project, which would "yield something in the order of $2 billion over time", he said.
The ACT's Chief Minister Andrew Barr was asked at the hearing whether he had been told about the proposed payment to Mr Potts and Mr Morris before it was finalised. Mr Barr said he had been told "that it would have some millions associated with it, broadly yes", but he was only given the precise figure after the purchase.
He had also been aware Mr Dawes was looking for a way to move the stormwater pond from the Parkes Way roundabout – with the pond to be built on the Glebe Park land.
The agency says moving the stormwater pond to Glebe Park will allow Parkes Way to be realigned and square up a development block. Mr Dawes said moving the pond would add 6500 square metres of space for development, as well as allowing the new sports stadium on the current site of the city pool.
Mr Dawes was also asked about payments to the bike and boat hire businesses on the lake, with the government buying both businesses last year to make way for West Basin development. Mr Coe said the only public notification of the payments he could find on the public invoices register, which records all payments above $25,000, was a $50,000 payment to Jim and Cony Seears, who ran the paddle boat business, in September last year. Mr Dawes said he would check the other payments.
The auditor-general is now investigating the Glebe Park transaction and the boat and bike hire transactions. Mr Dawes said he looked forward to her report "so we can move on".
