Auditor-General Michael Harris says 'lack of awareness' on procurement policies in ACT public service

But while there may be a wait into the findings of the integrity commission investigation, the ACT Auditor-General said an audit of the CIT contracts could be released shortly.

ACT Auditor-General Michael Harris told annual report hearings on Wednesday there was an audit underway into the policies of the government procurement board in relation to the CIT contracts.

Mr Harris also spoke about procurement issues, saying there was a lack of understanding across the ACT public service about procurement policies and guidelines.

"I think it's fair to say across the ACT public sector in general there's a lack of expertise on the one hand, or awareness of, on the other hand, the appropriate policies and practices that should be followed in order to get good procurement outcomes," he said.

Procurement issues in the territory's public service have been a focus of the territory's audit office and integrity commissioner.

Issues have been highlighted particularly after it emerged CIT had entered into a series of contracts, worth more than $8.5 million, with the one contractor over a period of five years.

The contracts related to organisation transformation and were awarded to "complexity and systems thinker" Patrick Hollingworth.

The institute did not follow advice from the government procurement board in relation to some contracts and the CIT board were unable to guarantee if a $5 million contract was value for money.

The integrity commission is examining more than a million documents as part of its investigation into the contracts.

ACT Integrity Commissioner Michael Adams KC told a separate hearing on Wednesday there would likely be an interim report released on the matter but it would be "significantly in advance" of a final report being released.

He said the investigation is covering six contracts over a three-year period.

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Mr Adams said the procurements for each of the contracts were questionable but said a particular issue had been identified with one contract that was different to the others.

He said the particular issue was smaller in scope and he was hopeful he could release an interim report about that matter.

"There would still be very substantial work to be done but this sometimes happens in an investigation... some particular issues come out that in one or more respects are decisive and you seek to focus on those before you move to more general matters," Mr Adams said.

Canberra Liberals member Peter Cain, who chairs the justice and safety committee asked whether phone tap powers would have helped the investigation.

The Canberra Liberals have proposed a bill to give the commission the power to intercept telephone conversations.

Mr Adams said in the initial stages of the inquiry the powers would have been helpful. He said such powers could help to open new lines of inquiry, confirm a line of inquiry or rule a line of inquiry.

"Some useful information is likely to have been obtained. I can say no more than that," he said.

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