Tender documents also show big-four consulting firm KPMG has an $86 million contract with the government agency for “transaction management services” for the Metro West line over a three-year period. Both Sydney Metro and KPMG declined to say whether that contract involved work on the West Partnership.

The Metro West line will be the largest of Sydney’s four metro lines,costing about $25 billion,based on the government’s latest estimates,and opening in 2030.

Macquarie is also building a $647 millionunderground station for the Metro City and Southwest line at Martin Place in the CBD,as well as two towers above it,after the previous state government accepted an unsolicited proposal from the investment bank in 2018.

After campaigning heavily against privatisation during the election,the new Labor government has signalled that the fate of the proposed partnership for the Metro West line lies in the outcome of awide-ranging review it commissioned two months ago into the metro rail projects. A string ofcost blowouts has plagued Sydney’s metro rail projects.

A spokesman for NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen said the new government was conducting a review into the metro projects to ensure they delivered the best outcome for taxpayers and passengers. “This includes contract and risk management concerning the rollout of metro infrastructure projects,” he said.

The first two stages of Sydney’s emerging metro network – theMetro Northwest andMetro City and Southwest lines – did not have an entity like that planned for Metro West.

Greens treasury spokeswoman Abigail Boyd,a former UBS investment banker,said a critical reconsideration of an over-reliance on consultants and public-private partnerships needed to be part of the government’s review of the metro projects to halt “this insidious privatisation by stealth”.

“Putting big finance interests like Macquarie and KPMG at the helm of these decisions will result in yet more wasted money without any real improvements to the transport network,” she said.

“The still unfolding PwC scandal has shown clearly that private consultancies are hopelessly compromised,and will always prioritise their commercial interests over the interests of taxpayers.”

PwC is embroiled in ascandal over the leaking of highly confidential federal Treasury information which was used to help clients who were the targets of a crackdown on multinationals avoiding corporate tax.

Despite awarding the lucrative contract to Macquarie,Sydney Metro said the partnership model was still under consideration by the government and a final decision had not been made.

The agency declined to answer specific questions about the contracts with Macquarie or KPMG,or those relating to the proposed Metro West entity. It has previously described the Metro West Partnership as an “innovative contracting approach” and model.

Macquarie and KPMG both declined to comment,citing commercial confidentiality.

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