Chief Minister Andrew Barr will detail his split of the Land Development Agency on Thursday, a decision made in light of a damning audit report on the agency's purchases of land in Glebe Park and West Basin.
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Mr Barr will outline the priorities of the two new agencies, which will each have their own boards. One will be responsible for "urban renewal" projects such as City to the Lake and Northbourne Avenue, and the other for new suburbs. Both will be in place from July 2017.
Ms Barr's statement comes as the Greens' Caroline Le Couteur has expressed significant concern about the activities of the Land Development Agency, telling the ACT parliament on Wednesday that "something is not right".
"The situation is to put it mildly unsatisfactory, and while the auditor-generals don't actually point to any explicit corruption, they do suggest a culture of cosy relationship and an environment that lacks transparency at least," she said.
She was "waiting with bated breath like everyone" to hear the detail of Mr Barr's plan to split the agency but what she had heard so far did not convince her that the problems would be addressed.
"Given that what [Mr Barr] has talked about so far is just separating into greenfields vs infill, I don't know how these things are going to get addressed," she said.
Auditor-General Maxine Cooper investigated the agency's purchase of land in Glebe Park from developers Barry Morris and Graham Potts, and the bike and boat hire businesses at West Basin. She said the purchases lacked transparency, accountability and rigour, and their integrity and probity could not be demonstrated.
She focused on the payment of $1 million to Pat Seears, who owned the head lease of the lakeside paddle boat business, and the $4.2 million Glebe Park purchase.
Mr Barr suffered a defeat on the floor of the parliament over the issue on Wednesday when Ms Le Couteur voted with the Liberals.
With Mr Rattenbury tied up at a national energy ministers' meeting, the votes were tied. A tied vote is defeated.
As a result, Liberal Leader Alistair Coe was defeated in a motion that highlighted the "manipulation" of freedom of information documents, a "lack of transparency, accountability and rigour" in agency land purchases, and "major issues around integrity and probity" at the agency.
Ms Le Couteur supported his call, but the vote was tied and therefore defeated. Mr Barr attempted to change Mr Coe's motion to remove the references to manipulation, issues of integrity and probity and other criticisms, but he, too, was defeated by a tied vote.
Mr Coe said the issue was about the government not following its own rules in buying land.
The process was "corrupted", and millions of taxpayers dollars might have been spent unnecessarily, he said.
Mr Coe referred to the "doctoring" of his freedom of information request in 2015, referring to a revelation in the audit report.
Dr Cooper said one of the valuations for the Glebe Park land had been "manipulated" before being released to Mr Coe under FOI laws, an action she said was unacceptable.
He said this week he still had not been sent the correct document and it was outrageous that he had only found out what had happened when the auditor reported.
Mr Coe said it was "very disappointing" that despite the severity of the issues raised by the auditor and the possibility that when millions of dollars of taxpayers dollars had been spent unnecessarily, Mr Barr had attempted to "belittle" it as an issue.
Mr Barr said he had written to the agency chairman after the audit report to express his concern and seek urgent advice.
He had responded that the "processes, practices and lack of record keeping" identified by the auditor needed urgent fixing.
"The LDA has acknowledged the seriousness of the audit findings, and the need for significant improvements in process and practice," Mr Barr said.
