The ACT's Attorney-General has backed the need for an inquiry into how the ACT Integrity Commission can speed up its processes.
Shane Rattenbury said while integrity investigations were complex and required large amounts of material to be examined, he understood the community's frustration at the time taken.
This has followed the release of a commission's report into the awarding of more than $8.5 million of contracts awarded by the Canberra Institute of Technology to "complexity and systems thinker" Patrick Hollingworth.
The commission found former CIT chief executive Leanne Cover guilty of "serious corrupt conduct" under the Integrity Commission Act.
The first report in this investigation was released last week, two years after the commission started the investigation. During that time Ms Cover was stood down on full pay, with her full remuneration totalling more than $700,000 over that time.
"It is clear that integrity commission investigations are really complex," Mr Rattenbury said.
"There is a large volume of material to get through and people who are subject to those investigations are seeking to clear their own names and use the various techniques available to them to either delay or get an outcome."
The Attorney-General said there may be scope for the Legislative Assembly's standing committee on justice and community safety to examine whether the commission's processes needed refining.
"There is both community frustration and political frustration at how long some of these investigations are taking. People want answers and they want to get them as soon as they can," Mr Rattenbury said.
"And certainly there is scope, whether its the JACs committee or some other process to have a look at this, look at what other jurisdictions are doing and see if there are ways that we can speed up these investigations."
Mr Rattenbury said questions that could be asked included whether the legislation needed amending to streamline processes or if the commission needed extra resources.
"I think these are the sorts of questions that do warrant some further investigation," he said.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr defended the time taken in the CIT investigation earlier this week, saying the commission was bound by legal processes and he thought it had been a good process.
The ACT government's integrity commission legislation was recently reviewed, as required under the act.
The review was completed by former Australian government solicitor Ian Govey and was required by the legislation. The review noted a big problem for the commission was a five-year exclusion period preventing former ACT public servants from being employed by the watchdog.
Mr Barr recently introduced legislation to the Assembly to implement some of the changes recommended in the review.
The opposition has moved motions in the Legislative Assembly calling for inquiries into matters surrounding the integrity commission investigations.
Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee called for the relevant Legislative Assembly committee to inquire into the circumstances of Ms Cover's employment over the two years she was stood down.
Ms Lee wanted to examine the circumstance of the former CEO's resignation on June 18, any payments she would receive and what changes could be implemented to ensure a person stood down is not entitled to receive any pay rises.
The motion was voted down by Labor and the Greens.
"This Labor-Greens government will put secrecy and their own political interested above the community each and every time," Ms Lee said.
"Canberrans have every right to be outraged at the pathetically weak and deflecting responses from both parties to this finding of 'serious corrupt conduct'."
The party will consider calling for further inquiries during the next sitting week, which is not until late-August.
Meanwhile, Ms Lee hit out at comments made by CIT interim chief executive Christine Robertson, who said earlier this week staff at the CIT were "moving on" following the scandal. Ms Robertson also said: "We take what's happen as part of our learning, but we move on".
"At best, these comments are astonishingly out of touch with the level of community outrage over this scandal," Ms Lee said.
"Canberra taxpayers shouldn't be slugged millions of dollars so that ministers and executives on $300,000+ salaries can take 'learnings'."
