But a senior territory public servant says he would welcome any further discussions with the Auditor-General about the matter.

A Legislative Assembly committee is currently investigating the claims of missing documents as part of an inquiry into the land deal the Auditor-General found saw the government relinquish up to $2.6 million in value to the CFMEU-linked club in 2014.

The deal involved former ACT public officials giving the club "significant concessions" in a two-year-long negotiation over a government tender to sell a carpark in Dickson to the club between 2012 and 2014, while the club sold two other nearby blocks it owned back to the government.

But the committee last week heard claims a former senior official involved may have "boxed up" documents detailing discussions during as many as 40 meetings, and left the economic development directorate.

It remains unclear whether such documents do, or do not, exist, though both the committee and the audit office appear to have been given markedly similar information about the matter by one or more unknown sources.

But Auditor-General Dr Maxine Cooper told the committee she had been told the claims, and that in the 40 meetings, "you would expect some notes to help you understand why things were evolving through discussions".

She said that despite going back and forth to the government searching for such documents, the audit office "simply couldn't find some of the material people are saying exists", and that if the information was "in a box somewhere", it was a matter for the agency.

The Canberra Times asked Planning Minister Mick Gentleman's office a series of questions about the matter, the security of the directorate's record-keeping at the time and since, and what investigations may be on foot to recover the documents.

The questions were referred to the Suburban Land Agency, which then referred to the government's environment, planning and sustainable development directorate.

Director-general Ben Ponton said in a statement that the audit had concluded that "records management practices within the former Economic Development Directorate and the Land Development Agency were lacking".

But he said "it does not make any finding that records were in existence that could not be provided to the audit office nor that any documents were ‘missing’".

Mr Ponton noted the report related to "historical transactions related to former entities that do not continue to operate", some functions of which had been transferred to the directorate, but that the governance and records management at the time were beyond the scope of the audit.

But he said he would welcome "continued discussions" with Dr Cooper to "allow us to investigate any possible compliance issues" that were "relevant to the directorate's expanded responsibilities".

"The community’s ongoing trust and confidence in government administration is important and something that I would like us to maintain as public servants," Mr Ponton said.

He also said the current electronic record management system was "transparent and robust"; staff were regularly trained in appropriate records management practices and the directorate prided itself on "a strong governance culture" to adhere to such procedures.