According to the questionnaires,four government departments – the Department of Jobs,Skills,Industry and Regions;the Department of Premier and Cabinet;the Department of Transport and Planning;and the Department of Treasury and Finance – also spent tens of millions on wages and payouts for extra staff hired to help deliver the event.
Asked on Sunday whether she was aware of a total cost to taxpayers for axing the event,Allan said the “budget would be reconciled in the usual way”.
State Auditor-General Andrew Greaves recently announced he would probe the Commonwealth Games cancellation after the opposition requested an investigation.
Allan said the state’s financial watchdog was the best place for a probe to occur.
Jeroen Weimar,the chief executive for the 2026 Commonwealth Games,and the former chief executive of the Office of the Commonwealth Games,Allen Garner,are listed to appear before the inquiry on Monday.
Allan has not yet been invited to give evidence but said she would not front the upper house inquiry if invited to do so.
"No,I won't be appearing before the inquiry,"she said on Sunday.
The parliamentary committee cannot compel the premier to appear as she is a member of the lower house. But an opposition spokesperson said the committee would invite the premier to give evidence in her capacity as the former minister for delivering the Games.
According to documents provided to the inquiry,more than $44,000 was also spent to fly Victoria’s top public servant,Jeremi Moule,to London to advise the Commonwealth Games Federation that the Games would be axed.
Taxpayer also spent thousands of dollars on travel costs for Weimar to attend the 2022 World Road Cycling Championships in Wollongong and for him to travel to Queensland to tour 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games sites.
The government paid law firm Arnold Bloch Leibler $1.27 million and barrister Frances Gordon,KC,$19,745 for 17 days work in August for legal services to dump the Games. The half a billion-dollar bill also includes $6 million spent by Victoria Police to establish a dedicated unit for the Games.
Sale yards in Ballarat that were to be converted into accommodation for Commonwealth Games athletes.Credit:Jason South
On June 13 Allan told a public accounts and estimates committee of the “tremendous progress” of Games organisers just 24 hours before the law firm wasengaged to provide advice about withdrawing from the event.
Opposition Leader John Pesutto described the figure as staggering and called on Allan to “come clean” on when she first knew the Games were at risk of being cancelled.
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“This is a staggering amount of money to have been squandered on an event that will never be held. Money that could have been spent on hospitals,schools,roads and providing much needed cost-of-living relief for Victorians. And we know there will be a lot more to come,” Pesutto said.
“It’s never been just about the astonishing amount of money that has been torched by Labor. It’s also about the integrity of the premier,who continues to cover up the true extent of this debacle.”
The committee will hold public hearings on October 9,13,23 and 26 and is scheduled to hand down an interim report in April.