An audit into Western Australia’s public land sales has revealed serious governance failures at the state’s central land and development agency – DevelopmentWA.
The audit flagged serious concerns about lack of transparency and value for taxpayers.
The report, ‘Fraud Risks in Land Transactions by DevelopmentWA’, was tabled in State Parliament last week by Auditor General Caroline Spencer.
It revealed that between 2017 and 2022, the government agency failed to uphold basic probity standards, sold land below value without justification, and lacked clear records for many sales.
DevelopmentWA, one of the State’s largest land and property developers, is owned by the WA Government.
Ms Spencer said the agency could not prove it delivered value for money to the community on all public land sales due to poor pricing consistency, documentation gaps and weak governance.
“Taxpayers would rightly expect zero unexplained and unapproved deviations from procedure when it comes to selling State-owned land,” she said.
The audit found nearly half of the 1,100 properties sold under a stimulus program failed to comply with approved pricing methods. Additionally, more than 30 percent of 242 reviewed sales lacked supporting documentation and Land was sold at prices more than 50 percent below the most recent valuation without any recorded reason.
Finally, the audit found that registers meant to track conflicts of interest, gifts and hospitality lacked detail, raising questions about oversight.
Ms Spencer said these failures pointed to a culture that, at the time, appeared to prioritise commercial interests over public accountability.
However, she noted the situation had started to improve in recent years, with stronger leadership from DevelopmentWA’s Board.
“The Board-led drive for cultural change must continue,” she said. “There must be a renewed focus on attention to detail and due process at every level.”
Ms Spencer said she was encouraged by the Board’s current awareness of the agency’s responsibilities and risks and confirmed her office would keep monitoring the agency’s land transactions.
“This is the most comprehensive review we’ve done of DevelopmentWA’s processes, and we will continue to ensure the public interest is protected,” she said.
