More than half a billion dollars was spent on the construction of buildings, roads, and bridges and on the purchase of equipment needed for construction in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT).

Treasurer Katy Gallagher disclosed a pre-audited capital works expenditure to reach $580million for the financial year 2009. The amount is almost twice the $296 million expenses in the previous year.

Gallagher said the total expenditure for the financial year was close to $850 million. Government agencies had rolled out 74 percent of the budgeted $670 million in 2009-10.

The ACT Government was under the tight scrutiny of the Auditor-General and the Opposition because of failing to get projects completed on time or on budget. The government delivered only $296 million of a $600 million program in 2008-09.

'”There was concern raised that we were announcing good programs but that we weren't delivering them,'' the treasurer said. ''We put a lot of effort into monitoring this and making sure that there were no unreasonable delays, and making sure that agencies really knew the importance of getting the work out on time.”

Gallagher claims government had to respond to the industry requests to allocate the spending over coming years. The allocation was expected to boost the business confidence of the territory's builders.