The ACT government has delayed spending $112 million on capital works meant to be completed this fiscal year, and pushed back spending $60 million for new public housing one year to 2020-21.
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Chief Minister Andrew Barr last week handed down the 2019-20 territory budget, which contained the delayed capital works spending amid about $100 million in other new initiatives.
The delays mean that of the $797 million originally allocated to be spent on territory infrastructure projects in 2018-19, $83 million of major projects expected to be spent that year was not.
The capital works delays can occur for a range of reasons, including changes to the timing of financial close of a project, weather and failures to meet specific government deadlines for work done.
But as the government starts planning building 200 new public housing dwellings, it has pushed back a $60 million spend originally planned for 2019-20.
Instead, it will spend about $17 million on new public housing works in 2020-21, with the bulk of the project, some $43 million worth, now scheduled for 2021-22.
The government has also rolled over about $19 million worth of work on Canberra's new lakefront and reclamation two years, to be spent by 2021-22, likely due to delays in talks with the Commonwealth over the project.
While the capital works budget shows $10 million was brought forward for Gungahlin school expansions, a further $12 million was pushed back two years for the Molonglo P-6 school, with completion delayed until 2020-21.
In health, $16 million for ACT Health's critical infrastructure assets upgrades has been delayed two years, and is now scheduled to be spent in 2020-21.
A $4 million upgrade to aged care and cancer patient infrastructure has also been pushed back two years to 2020-21, as have a series of smaller service-related capital works budgets across health.
In transport, $10 million for a new Woden bus interchange has been delayed from 2018-19 to 2019-20, and $21 million for the rapid bus network expansion was also rolled over to 2019-20.
A government spokeswoman said "re-profiling" of funds could be due to several causes including a need to negotiate further with the National Capital Authority and whether extra planning or scoping works were needed before construction began.
"Each individual major project has its own complex negotiations to complete for commencement, as well as project milestones, expectations and timeline for delivery," she said.
"In some instances, projects have been procured and set for delivery over the coming year.
"There can often be a difference between physical completion of a project and financial completion.
"Re-profiling spending on specific projects between fiscal years reflects prudent fiscal management to make progress payments against the achievement of project milestones."
