N.L. government 'not opposed' to Muskrat Falls forensic audit, but holding off for now

The Newfoundland and Labrador government is not ruling out a forensic audit of early cost estimates related to Muskrat Falls, but it won't commit to doing one either.

Natural Resources Minister Siobhan Coady says officials are waiting for the auditor general to finish a broad review of Nalcor Energy first.

"Certainly not opposed to looking at a forensic audit," Coady told reporters outside the House of Assembly Wednesday.

"Certainly not opposed to really questioning, because we have a lot of questions ourselves."

Coady was reacting to a CBC Investigates story about a former senior engineer on Muskrat Falls who called for a forensic audit, to find out why early cost projections for the hydro megaproject were "ridiculously low."

• Former Muskrat Falls engineer calls for forensic audit to examine 'absurdly low' cost estimates

Last year, Auditor General Terry Paddon said he hoped to have a general review of Nalcor Energy completed as soon as this spring.

• Auditor general pledges to look at Nalcor

Coady saidthe Ball administration will wait for the results of Paddon's workbefore making any decisions.

"We're going to look at what the auditor general does uncover and talk to the auditor general at the time, and then consider how we move [forward], what's the next steps from there," Coady said.

Opposition favours forensic audit

Both the New Democrats and Tories are in favour of a forensic audit.

"If we learn nothing from this which I think could very well turn out to be the biggest debacle in the province's history then we'll keep on doing it, until we start learning some lessons," NDP Leader Earle McCurdy told reporters.

"So I think it's important to understand what went wrong and to avoid this kind of a huge blunder again."

PC Leader Paul Davis also expressed support for the idea.

"Anything that can be doneto get details and information to the benefit of the people of the province, I'm all for it," Davis said.

Project costs have jumped by billions

In late 2012, when the project was sanctioned, the capital cost of the dam and transmission assets to move power from Labrador to Newfoundland was projected at $6.2 billion.

Just over four years later, those estimates havejumped to $11.7 billion although that number is not a direct apples-to-apples comparison, because it now includes financing costs.

The former senior engineer saysa forensic audit is the only way to find out what happened.

CBC News agreed to protect the engineer's identity, because he is not authorized to speak publicly about his work in Labrador.