Ms Mikakos was not asked about infection control measures when she fronted the parliamentary inquiry on Tuesday but said the hotels program was a “multi-agency effort”.

"I’m responsible for my own department,but I am not responsible for every single department across the government,"she said.

Mr Pakula told the public accounts and estimates committee hearing that his team was in charge of “the booking of rooms,the organising of meals and laundry and things of that nature. They were responsible for logistics,the provision of meals.”

Mr Pakula defended public servants from Global Victoria,an international trade department,who appeared in a leaked video this week boasting of their success in establishing the program.

“If your point is that it would not be sensible for people from Global Victoria to be responsible for things like infection control,I would agree. And they were not,” Mr Pakula told the inquiry. “The responsibility for infection control and health matters was the DHHS,as you would expect.”

Mr Pakula insisted he was not pointing the finger at Ms Mikakos or the DHHS and refused to answer a question from Liberal MP Bridget Vallence asking which minister was ultimately responsible for the program.

“I’m not going to engage with you on what can only be described as a gotcha-type question,” Mr Pakula said.

Premier Daniel Andrews and Ms Mikakos have in recent weeks refused to answer questions on the quarantine hotels program before the inquiry being led by retired judge Jennifer Coate.

However,over two hours of questioning from the 10 MPs on the parliamentary public accounts and estimates committee,Mr Pakula and his most senior public servants painted the clearest picture yet of how Victoria’s quarantine hotels program was hatched.

They said that at 4.30pm on March 27,hours after National Cabinet agreed each state should establish a hotel quarantine system,Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp chaired a meeting at Victoria’s State Control Centre with representatives from various government agencies and police. Senior ministers,including Mr Andrews and Mr Pakula,did not attend.

The secretary of the Department of Jobs,Precincts and Regions,Simon Phemister,said his department was given 36 hours to hire private security companies. It hassince been revealed that the contracting arrangements allowed companies to use subcontracting to pay guards as little as $18 an hour and hire them via WhatsApp messages.

Mr Pakula confirmed reports inThe Age andHerald last month that,within days of setting up the arrangement,his department had become worried about the security guards.

“There were on a couple of occasions,early in the program,entreaties from officers of my department,where it was our view that police should be on-site at hotels,” Mr Pakula said.

Mr Phemister said those concerns were directed to Chris Eagle,a senior officer with Forest Fire Management Victoria who was put in day-to-day control of the hotels operation after the March 27 meeting.

“The deputy state controller[Mr Eagle] acknowledged and heard at all times any concerns that were raised,” Mr Phemister said. “What he did with our concerns,I’m unsure."

Victoria Police was not involved in quarantine hotels until July. In NSW,private security companies were overseen by police,and Border Force officials worked with security guards in each hotel.