Beattie won't say sorry for Coast hospital budget bungle
Former premier Peter Beattie has accused the state's independent Auditor-General of being "political" after he handed down a report which found his government underestimated the cost of building three hospitals by $2.2 billion.
The report, handed down on Tuesday, found failures in the planning, approval and delivery of the Gold Coast University Hospital, the Sunshine Coast Public University Hospital and the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital, which were originally budgeted at just under $3 billion.
The final project delivery cost came in at $5.08 billion, about 77 per cent more than the initial estimates.
"Initial cost estimates for each project were announced before business cases were developed," Auditor-General Andrew Greaves reported.
"There were no caveats on the reliability or completeness of estimates when they were made public."
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