An internal investigation is under way into why the federal government paid at least $13m over the odds for an $80m water buyback from Eastern Australia Agriculture – a company linked to federal MP Angus Taylor – in 2017. The auditor general, Grant Hehir, who reviewed the government’s water purchase program last year, contacted the valuer used by the Department of Agriculture for the sale, Colliers International, after receiving a complaint from.
It resulted in the department paying a record price of $2,745 per megalitre for the unreliable floodplain entitlements.
It has now emerged this was not what the valuer intended and the department appears to have misinterpreted the valuation advice.
Colliers’ discussion of a premium in the valuation was to guide the department if it chose to move beyond the recommended valuation of $1,500 per megalitre.
Colliers provided a range of values between $1,050 and $2,300 per megalitre and discussed factors that might shift the price.
Instead, the department took the top of the band and added about 20%.
The latest controversy over commonwealth procurement comes after revelations the government paid the Perich family almost $30m for a piece of land known as the Leppington Triangle, 10 times what it was valued at just 11 months later. An investigation is now under way into that sale.