KEY POINTS:
Taxpayers have forked out almost $10 million extra for the Eden Park upgrade, according to papers released under the Official Information Act.
The Eden Park Redevelopment Board announced last December the total cost of the project was $240.5m, mostly funded by the Government underwriting $190m.
Yet Ministry of
Economic Development papers released to the Herald on Sunday reveal an extra $8.6m was paid to the Eden Park Trust Board for earlier plans that never left the drawing board.
A December letter sent to Rugby World Cup Minister Clayton Cosgrove from ministry deputy registrar Neville Harris clearly states the extra money was budgeted in the final redevelopment bill.
Harris wrote in a bid to "de-risk" resource consent issues, the redevelopment board chose a design that "pushes the cost to slightly less than $250m".
The Crown repaid the $8.6m "from the first tranche of money appropriated for its preferred design", the letter said.
The redevelopment board's chief executive Adam Feeley said the "separate pre-redevelopment costs" were a matter for the trust board and Crown.
The trust board's chief executive, John Alexander, was in Australia and did not respond to a request for comment.
A spokeswoman for Cosgrove said the $8.6m had always been excluded from the redevelopment bill and would have been paid out in 2006 and 2007.
She said the figure had not been hidden and was noted in papers previously released to the media.
But ARC chairman Mike Lee _ whose organisation reluctantly committed $10m to the revamp _ was unaware of the payout.
"That's a hell of a lot of money for some plans that just didn't work out."
In February, Feeley announced $222m of the $240m required had been confirmed, with the Government contributing $190m, the Eden Park Trust Board $12m and the ARC and New Zealand Rugby Union $10m each.
Since then, the ASB Community Trust has committed $6.5m.
Auckland Mayor John Banks said the shortfall has been covered because the Government invested its $190m into a consortium of banks in order to earn 8 per cent interest. "I don't need to tell you how much that is. It's one hell of a lot of money. The interest earned would be $15m a year."
Before his re-election last year, Banks promised to withdraw $50m of ratepayer funding from the stadium rebuild.
The Auckland City Council has since decided to invest the same amount into infrastructure and "operational" projects around Eden Park.
Although taxpayers were not told about the "sunk costs", Banks was aware of the $8.6m repaid to Eden Park. "No one has been talking much about it, but I was inside that loop.
"I'm glad other parties are funding the Eden Park rebuild and not council ratepayers."
The upgrade has been beset by problems since New Zealand won the Rugby World Cup 2011 hosting rights over South Africa and Japan three years ago.
