Auditor Raps Govt Over Short-term Land Leases

The Audit Commission has criticised the Lands Department in its latest value-for-money report, for failing to properly oversee short-term tenancies of government land – saying more than 80 percent of such plots have been allocated to the same tenant for over seven years without any formal justification.

Four out of ten sites have been occupied by the same tenant for more than 20 years, and in the most extreme case, one party has leased the same site for 55 years – when guidelines state that they should have a fixed term of not more than seven years.

Tenancies that exceed this time frame should have a policy justification, the auditor said, but the Lands Department had no readily available information on why the tenants have been leasing the same land for such a long time.

The department manages almost 5,600 such sites, covering more than 2,400 hectares across the territory.

They comprise of unallocated government land that can be used for specific purposes set out in the tenancy agreements.

But the auditor said the department had failed to conduct required site inspections for around a quarter of them; and for 40 percent of the plots that were checked, they weren’t done in compliance with mandatory requirements.

The department should also do a better job of checking vacant sites, the commission said, as it found instances where the land was being used as an illegal dump site, or for parking.

The department’s system for vetting applications also needs work, it said, with one prospective tenant having to wait for 22 years, and the average application taking 20 months to process.

In response, the Lands Department said it accepts the recommendations put forward by the Director of Audit, and added that it will review its current guidelines to ensure the renewal of tenancies meet relevant rules.