She warned the operations of the Land Development Agency had been so out of step with best practice that it opened the way for fraud to occur. While no actual fraud has been alleged, this breakdown in proper expenditure and procurement procedures should be setting alarm bells ringing within the government, and demands a significant response.

Many of Dr Coopers' concerns have already been aired during her audit report released last year in relation to the sale of land.

These included the payment of $1 million for a boat hire business with valuations of $50,000 and $100,000 and $538,000 to a sub-lessee.

Another questionable transaction was the payment of $1.1 million to the owners of a bike hire business despite it only being valued between $650,000 and $700,000.

Dr Cooper also highlighted the alleged movement of staff from the LDA to a key contractor, who was then paid for the work they did, at the LDA's request.

The LDA's decision to pay $3.8 million, plus GST, for Glebe Park land without a formal and up to date valuation was also a cause for concern.

Perhaps one of the most concerning aspects of her evidence delivered during the hearing, was the seemingly casual approach to the procurement of private services and the expenditure of public money with apparently "loose governance arrangements" and loose systems.

She found the agency's purchase of three properties lacked transparency, accountability and rigour, and their integrity and probity could not be demonstrated.

"There's no way the agency can come back and show justification (for the transactions), which is why one of the principles of any government is to have that transparency through documentation," she said.

While, as Dr Cooper was at pains to point out, there was no evidence anything illegal had happened, all of these transactions involved significant amounts of tax payer's money and, as such, need to be transparent and fully accountable.

In response to her 2016 audit report into those concerns the LDA said the amounts paid to the businesses were reasonable, appropriate and necessary but conceded the processes used to facilitate these purchases were in need of improvement.

Frankly, the hard working taxpayers of the ACT deserve a better explanation. They deserve to be told exactly why large sums of public money were spent in such a "loose" fashion, and they deserve a thorough explanation of the steps that will be taken to rectify the identified governance issues.

Dr Cooper also foreshadowed further investigations to come into the LDA's purchase of farmland, warning that investigation, "brings up similar issues or even different issues," that posed a potential risk to the territory. It appears there may be more pain to come for the ACT government on this issue.