The former South Australian Labor government's decision to sell off some of the state's land services has largely been given a clean bill of health by the SA auditor-general.
Andrew Richardson has investigated the $1.6 billion deal and says sound processes and controls were adopted and it involved a fair and transparent procurement process.
But Mr Richardson has raised some concerns including a lack of specific analysis relating to some of the risks and that the contracts were not publicly disclosed in line with government requirements.
"The contractual arrangements provide a sound base to ensure the proper performance of the outsourced services and the maintenance of statutory functions and protections," he said in his report released on Thursday.
Under the deal, a consortium known as Land Services SA has taken over processing of land transaction services for the next 40 years.
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It has also been given exclusive rights to commercialise certain land services data.
However, all legal, policy and regulatory functions in relation to the land titles office remain with the government.
Current Treasurer Rob Lucas said in his assessment, Mr Richardson had strongly criticised aspects of the "secret deal".
He said as part of the arrangement Land Services SA was also given an exclusive right to negotiate over any future sale of the state's motor vehicle registry in return for a payment of $80 million.
Mr Lucas said if the government now decides to break that agreement it must pay back the $80 million plus interest, which could cost the state up to $104 million.
"We blew the whistle upon coming to government, now we have the state's auditor-general confirming no formal financial analysis on this aspect of the deal was done on its reasonableness or impact on taxpayers," the treasurer said.
