Transport Canberra Deputy Director General. Duncan Edghill was responding to questions from Liberal leader Alistair Coe about the near $600,000 a year contract of light rail project director Scott Lyall. Mr Lyall also has an apartment paid for, at $875 a week, or $45,500 a year, and a monthly return airfare to Sydney.

Mr Edghill said of the 14 consultants on the tram project, just two lived in Canberra. He did not detail the arrangements for the others, but said accommodation was a typical part of such contracts. He believed that Mr Lyall's deal was the only one in which the government paid the rent directly to the landlord.

Mr Coe questioned the deal, given the government has no contract with the landlord - rather, a contract with Mr Lyall to cover accommodation at $875 a week.

"You're paying an entity that doesn't have a contract with the ACT government. You're paying an entity that has an arrangement with a consultant... Surely there is some procurement issues there," he said. "The approved contract is not with a landlord, the approved contract is with somebody else."

Mr Edghill responded, "We entered into a contract with Mr Lyall that was approved appropriately internally that clearly contemplated that accommodation would be provided up to that dollar amount."

Mr Coe: "I'm not doubting that the contract exists. It's whether it complies with the procurement rules. And I would find it very hard to believe that a third party can sign a contract to then pay somebody else an amount of $875 a week. Did you take advice on that?"

Transport Minister Meegan Fitzharris said she would take the question on notice.

Mr Edghill said if Mr Lyall was to get a more expensive apartment, the government would pay no more than $875 a week.

"To be honest, whether Mr Lyall is living in a hovel or a mansion is neither here nor there to us, what is of concern to us is that the dollar amount doesn't exceed the amount that Mr Lyall is entitled to," he said.

Mr Edghill said he was very confident that the deal with Mr Lyall was a good deal for Canberra and he had "certainly proved himself". The government was not operating in the ACT market, but in the national market.

"The project is obviously a light rail project and we don't have a light rail system in Canberra yet, so the expertise we need to source for specialist functions comes from outside Canberra. So there is a need for use to ask service providers to locate here in Canberra during the course of construction," he said.

The government had faced an added challenge last year, when the Liberals' promise to halt the project if they won government had made it difficult to recruit people as direct employees.