The ACT Integrity Commission will be asked to investigate the now-defunct Land Development Agency's controversial land deals at Glebe Park and Lake Burley Griffin.
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It would be among the first cases referred to the territory's anti-corruption watchdog.
The referral was recommended by an ACT Legislative Assembly committee, which on Thursday handed down the final report from its inquiry into four city land deals made by the agency in 2015.
The Assembly inquiry was sparked by the damning 2016 report from then-Auditor-General Maxine Cooper, who found the transactions lacked transparency, accountability and rigor.
The committee's report reaffirmed many of the auditor's findings and conclusions.
But inquiry chair Vicki Dunne acknowledged that as her cross-party committee, and the auditor-general, had limited power to "adjudicate" on the findings, the case should be referred to the ACT Integrity Commission.
The commission is due to start taking complaints from December 1.
Opposition leader Alistair Coe said the referral was a damning indictment on the Barr government.
"What we have here is a four-person committee - made up of two Liberal MLAs and two Labor MLAs - recommending that deals done by the agency, when Chief Minister Andrew Barr was the responsible minister, should go to the territory's ICAC," Mr Coe said.
"This is incredibly significant."
Mr Barr's spokeswoman would not be drawn on Mr Coe's comments, and said it was up to the independent integrity commission to determine if the deals warranted further investigation.
The committee and the auditor-general interrogated the agency's handling of a deal to buy a block of land in Glebe Park, owned by developers Barry Morris and Graham Potts, for $4.2 million - four times the amount of one valuation.
It also probed the amount paid to secure leases at two waterfront blocks, which stood in the way of the government's vision to redevelop the banks of West Basin.
In its report, the committee said the agency failed to follow proper process "in several ways" during the deals, raising concerns about transparency, use of public money, record keeping and conflicting and incomplete evidence.
The committee's report raised further questions about the motives behind the Glebe Park land deal.
The agency secured the block on September 2015, a month after Aquis Entertainment lodged an unsolicited bid to expand its nearby Casino Canberra on to part of that land.
In evidence to the inquiry, government representatives denied that there was a link between the purchase of the land and the casino expansion. The government has always maintained that it bought the Glebe Park land so it could build a new stormwater pond, which would replace the pond on the nearby Parkes Way roundabout.
But the committee cast doubt over those assertions, saying there was "grounds to believe that actions of the ACT Government were influenced by Aquis Entertainment".
The committee said Aquis provided information to it late in the inquiry, which confirmed that the government not only knew about its plans to build on the Glebe Park land, but encouraged it.
"This raises the question of why the ACT government would intervene by acquiring the land when a transaction could have taken place directly between Aquis Entertainment and the then lease-holders - without the involvement of government," the report stated.
The committee said the government's motives for the deal went to the heart of "whether it serves public or private interests".
"Public expectations are that it will serve the public interest. Where it does not, government is in danger of losing the confidence of its constituents, and a number of problems follow."
The committee reserved particular criticism for the agency's approach to land valuations. The agency "applied pressure" to valuers, the committee said, including asking them to increase their figures.
"This increases the sense that the LDA was, in conducting these acquisitions, operating in what can be described, at best, as a 'grey area' of law," the committee found.
Among 13 recommendations, the committee said the government should obtain at least two valuations - which are current at the time of purchase - when it seeks to buy land. It should also introduce rules to stop agencies hiring ex-employees as contractors.
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Dan covers federal politics from Parliament House, with a special focus on climate policy and the NDIS. He has previously reported on ACT politics and urban affairs since joining the Canberra Times in 2018.
Dan covers federal politics from Parliament House, with a special focus on climate policy and the NDIS. He has previously reported on ACT politics and urban affairs since joining the Canberra Times in 2018.
