Stormont's public spending watchdog has found some Housing Executive staff were a law unto themselves who showed "obvious disregard for proper processes and control systems".
In a report that lambasts the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) board, its former chief executive Paddy McIntyre and the one-time director of the public body's regeneration division Colm McCaughley, the assembly's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) makes a raft of recommendations it believes will improve governance.
The Department of Social Development also comes in for criticism from the MLAs for failures in oversight.
The Stormont committee's findings come just months after an audit office investigation drew similar conclusions about a series of land deals with private developers between 2004-2010. It is the second time in recent years the assembly's public spending watchdog has censured the Housing Executive for its standards of governance.
In 2013, the PAC said years of basic failures in the body's governance and management exposed it to a "very significant risk of fraud, impropriety and poor value for money".
Yet despite various internal probes by the Housing Executive which subsequently saw five cases being referred to the PSNI, nobody has been prosecuted.
The committee's latest report found serious weaknesses in the DSD's oversight of the Housing Executive and flaws in the Hosuing Executive's corporate governance structures.
The MLAs also identified a breakdown of the Housing Executive's internal controls around land and property dealings prior to 2010, along with the mismanagement of a serious conflict of interest by Mr McCaughley, the then director of housing and regeneration.
The committee's conclusions centred on deals relating to land at Nelson Street, Hardcastle Street, Annadale and Glenalpin Street in Belfast, along with Millmount House in Dundonald.
PAC chair Michaela Boyle said the organisational culture in the Housing Executive was "seriously flawed".
"We have been left with the impression that some staff in NIHE felt they did not need to operate within the Housing Executive’s governance and control systems – advice and guidance was simply ignored, with serious consequences for NIHE," she said.
Ms Boyle said DSD and the Housing Executive should have taken action to tackle weaknesses in governance after multiple concerns were raised in audits.
"The committee considers that there were clear failings in the department’s oversight of NIHE," she said.
"It is unbelievable that the department did not test the performance and governance assurances received from NIHE."
The PAC chair said there was a recognition that "much has changed" in the Housing Executive.
