Australia's auditor-general has said the Leppington Triangle land deal is the first he has ever alerted to the Australian Federal Police (AFP) in his five years in the job.
Key points:
- A valuation a year after the plot was bought showed it was worth just $3 million
- The auditor-general referred the deal to the AFP after coming across information that was "suggestive of the fact the Commonwealth may have been defrauded"
- A spokesperson from the Leppington Pastoral Company said they would cooperate with any investigation
The Commonwealth paid $29.8 million for the 12-hectare plot, near the Western Sydney airport, in mid-2018.
A valuation a year later showed it was worth just $3 million, and an Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) report was scathing of how the Commonwealth handled the deal.
The AFP last week confirmed it is investigating possible "criminal offences" relating to the sale.
In front of Senate Estimates on Monday night the auditor-general, Grant Hehir, said this was the first time he had ever contacted the AFP about an audit.
"We came to a view that there was information we found which we couldn't explain and was suggestive of the fact the Commonwealth may have been defrauded," he said.
"I thought it was in the public interest for me to provide information to the AFP commissioner."
Mr Hehir said he first contacted the AFP commissioner on July 10, and followed up in writing three days later, two months before the audit report was released.
"I felt that in that circumstance the best course of action was to provide that audit evidence to an investigatory body — the AFP — to look at it and make its own decision."
Valuer never entered the property
The audit had raised concerns about why only one valuation of the land was obtained prior to the sale, and why that work was done by a valuer suggested by the Leppington Pastoral Company, which then owned the land.
ANAO executive director Brian Boyd told Senate Estimates the valuer never went onto the property.
"The valuer wasn't allowed to undertake the inquiries you would normally expect a valuer to undertake," he said.
"They weren't allowed on the land, they actually did a drive by which they weren't supposed to, but they did that.
"You had a very wide range of around $4-5 million between the upper lower range — the Department used a mid-point as if that had some science to it which it really didn't."
Mr Boyd added the valuer had objected to the instructions they were given by the Department.
Shadow Infrastructure Minister Catherine King said the Opposition would push for all investigations to be made public.
"I think it's very important that the Australian Federal Police investigation be undertaken, we'll continue to pursue through Senate Estimates, but also other arms of the Parliament, what we can. But I think it's very important that any investigations that are being undertaken are made public."
In a statement, a spokesperson from the Leppington Pastoral Company said they would cooperate fully with any investigation.
"Leppington Pastoral Company has acted appropriately at all times in relation to this property transaction," they said.
Earlier on Monday it was revealed two staff in the Department's Western Sydney Unit were being investigated — with one moved to another role and the other stood down.
Infrastructure Department secretary Simon Atkinson told a Senate committee he had serious concerns about how the deal was handled and wanted to "clean it up".
He said he had commissioned three internal inquiries into the deal.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMia2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTEwLTIwL2xlcHBpbmd0b24tdHJpYW5nbGUtZGVhbC1hdWRpdG9yLWdlbmVyYWwtZmlyc3QtYWxlcnQtdG8tYWZwLzEyNzg0MTE20gEnaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAuYWJjLm5ldC5hdS9hcnRpY2xlLzEyNzg0MTE2?oc=5
2020-10-19 13:15:00Z
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