Glebe Park, West Basin land agency deals 'not optimal': ACT solicitor general

And he said in his judgement the land agency board was wrong when it decided land deals could be made by land agency chief David Dawes without the board's sign off.

Rules covering the way the Land Development Agency bought land said all purchases up to $5 million must be approved by the board and over $5 million by the chief minister and treasurer. None of the Glebe Park and West Basin purchases went to the board, which made its own decision at the end of August 2015 to reinterpret the rules.

With Mr Dawes having already agreed in June 2015 to buy a Glebe Park block off four businessmen for $3.8 million, the board agreed to a new "interpretation" of the law, which allowed Mr Dawes to authorise land purchases himself, without board approval, if they were related to existing projects such as city to the lake.

Auditor General Maxine Cooper, who took advice from the Australian government solicitor, found the board's interpretation was incorrect and said all purchases below $5 million should have gone to the board.

Mr Garrisson said he agreed and had made his views known to the board.

"The [land acquisition] direction means what the direction said," he said on Wednesday, appearing before an ACT parliamentary inquiry into the land deals.

Inquiry chairwoman Vicki Dunne (Liberal) asked Mr Garrisson about the complaints from the owners of Mr Spokes' bike hire that negotiations to buy their business had been done without any proper structure, procedure or paper trial.

Mr Garrisson responded, "A structure is always good. Perhaps I could leave it at that."

He said his office had had little involvement in the Glebe Park land purchase until June 2015 when it received a contract.

"Clearly a deal of some description had been done and we were then instructed to finalise the document," he said.

He been more involved in the negotiations over the Mr Spokes business, although negotiations had been "almost intermittent" with periods of intense activity.

"In respects of both matters [Mr Spokes and the paddle boat hire], I think it would be fair to say that the negotiations were difficult ... and I think that's reflected in the auditor general's report, and it was also, I think I can probably fairly observe, a little on the untidy side," he said.

"And from my observations at different points we were dealing with lawyers then we were dealing with the parties directly and parties directly were dealing when they were lawyers involved, and communication was perhaps not optimal."

As for the deal to buy the paddle boat hire lease, Mr Garrisson said, "If one looks at it in totality, it was untidy and from a process perspective certainly my prefernece would have been for it to have proceeded in a different way", but he said the sale had been part of a much bigger project.

Mr Garrisson, however, had no criticism of the role of Ben Parsons, a broker who stepped in to help the Mr Spokes owners when negotiations broken down, Mr Parsons offered to work free of charge, then negotiated a $43,000 fee directly with Mr Dawes, at the land agency.

Mr Garrisson said negotiating a payment for brokers, consultants and advisers in that way was not unusual, and "certainly isn't something from our perspective providing legal advice we would say this is a terrible thing, you shouldn't do it".