Inconsistencies have emerged about when three Labor chief ministers knew about a $100 million-plus blowout in the cost of the Cotter Dam enlargement.
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It has prompted opposition claims that ministers were either receiving off-the-record briefings with no documentation for transparency or that ACTEW (now Icon Water) was behaving like a maverick.
Buried in last week's Auditor-General's report into the project was the revelation no documented evidence showing the estimated final cost of $363 million had been provided to the government before August 26, 2009.
This was the day then planning minister Andrew Barr - now chief minister - announced he would use call-in powers to fast track the approval process.
Archived news articles show no mention of a cost blowout was made when Mr Barr announced this to the media.
A week later on September 3, 2009, ACTEW said publicly the project would have an estimated price tag of $363 million and not $250 million (it would eventually cost $410.5 million) and then chief minister Jon Stanhope fronted the media saying he was shocked.
"In politics, as in life, there are some sow's ears from which it is simply not possible to make a silk purse, and I'm not going to rehash this but the government is disappointed that ACTEW did not keep it better or more fully informed in relation to the increase in the cost of the dam," Mr Stanhope said at the time.
Last week's audit report noted another statement made by Mr Stanhope that the government was advised about the new cost "somewhere around ...I'm guessing" August 27, 2009 - the day after the call-in powers were used.
But later that same month - September 15, 2009 - Treasurer Katy Gallagher
e actual dollar figure, the $363 million, that was not confirmed by the ACTEW board until, I think, about 21 or 22 August," Ms Gallagher said on September 15.
"I will check that date. Certainly that final figure was made aware to me on 24 August.
"I think I was kept briefed at regular intervals but the final cost, as you know, was made public pretty much as soon as the government was made aware of it."
On Monday an ACT Auditor-General's office spokesman said the statement made by Ms Gallagher in the Legislative Assembly on September 15, 2009, conflated several issues associated with dam project.
"Documentation indicates that the figure of $363 million was communicated to the board by the then ACTEW managing director on August 26, 2009, and was agreed to by the Board on September 1, 2009," the spokesman said.
On September 16, 2009, Mr Barr green lighted the project using the call-in powers he had activated more than a fortnight earlier.
This week opposition infrastructure spokesman Alistair Coe said "t
"The distinct lack of formal communication between ACTEW and the ministers shows ACTEW were either mavericks going it alone or they were giving informal briefings to ministers off-the-record," Mr Coe said.
