Search underway after claims of missing Dickson land swap documents

Chief Minister Andrew Barr confirmed the search for the claimed missing documents was underway in answers to a series of questions from the Opposition this week, nearly two months after The Canberra Times reported the government was not, at that time, investigating the matter.

It comes as the Legislative Assembly's Public Accounts committee also investigates the circumstances surrounding the land swap, which the ACT Auditor-General's inquiry found gave up to $2.65 million worth of concessions to the CFMEU-linked Canberra Tradesmen's Union Club.

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.

The Auditor-General, Dr Maxine Cooper, was unable to verify whether the claim of the missing documents was true, due to a lack of documentation made or kept about the land swap negotiations by the former agency.

It was made by former Economic Development Directorate director of sustainable land strategy Greg Ellis, who recently told The Canberra Times he had documents detailing his involvement in the talks during 2012 and 2013 boxed up, but did not understand why they could not be found.

Mr Barr told the Assembly this week that there were "processes underway in the [planning] directorate in an attempt to ascertain the veracity of this claim of missing documents".

"The auditor has been communicated with by the director-general of the planning directorate seeking to find further information from her as to the nature of the documents that have been alleged to not exist or exist, depending on the circumstances of the inquiry," he said.

"The Auditor-General, obviously, is in the best position to advise the director-general, the Assembly and the community as to exactly what is alleged to be missing but until that process is complete it is difficult for me to comment further."

While the search is now underway, a statement from environment, planning and sustainable development director-general Ben Ponton has confirmed the directorate did not begin the search until after media questions about the possible investigation.

He said he wrote to Dr Cooper about the matter only on June 18 this year, more than two weeks after media reporting on the lack of an investigation, and the hearing when the claim was first publicly aired.

Mr Ponton said he also wrote to Public Accounts Committee chairwoman Vicki Dunne at the same time.

"Both letters requested that any information, relating to the claim of ‘missing’ records, be provided to assist in further investigation of the matter," he said in a statement.

Mr Ponton said Ms Dunne had indicated that the committee discussed the matter in private and the information therefore was deemed confidential.

"Further to this, the Auditor-General wrote that they were not able to substantiate the assertion that the missing documents existed," he said.

Mr Ponton said notwithstanding the correspondence, he requested further searches within the directorate and directorate was now searching for the claimed documents across the planning portfolio.

Mr Ponton also said he took compliance issues and procedures very seriously, and that the audit report did not make any findings that the records were in existence, nor that any documents were actually missing.

The committee inquiry continues.