The National Archives has been given the go-ahead to build a $100 million preservation building but rebuked over its management of the project.
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Federal Parliament's public works committee has also criticised the CSIRO for a $77 million increase in the cost of completing a world-leading survey radio telescope in Western Australia.
The committee last year refused to sign off on the new archives building, designed to have 114 kilometres of shelving, because of concerns about possible cost overruns.
The committee had been unconvinced the NA plan to enter a pre-commitment lease represented value for money, but later agreed to reconsider the matter.
This week it approved the project but said the NA's inability to demonstrate the project's value for money reflected poorly on it.
"For this project the committee was also left to grapple with information that was in some instances contradictory, and sometimes even incorrect,'' it said in its report.
In the same report, the committee expressed concern at a proposed increase in the budget for the CSIRO Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder radio telescope to $188 million, from an original $111 million. Its budget was lifted to $138.5 million in 2011. The CSIRO has built 36 antennas. Phased array feed receivers (PAFs) had been installed onto some of them. The committee said it was "appalled'' that no contingency had been made for the design and installation of the PAFs.
