THE $535 million Adelaide Oval redevelopment has come in under budget but the Auditor General has still flagged expenditure concerns and questioned if cabinet should have been informed about how some of the money was spent.

In his latest report, released this afternooon, Auditor-General Andrew Richardson also said he was reviewing whether some of the money spent met the requirements of the Adelaide Oval Redevelopment and Management Act.

In his ninth report on the redevelopment, Mr Richardson said the project had cost $526.6 million, more than $8 million below its capped budget of $535 million.

However, he also noted another $3.56 million had been paid to the Stadium Management Authority, which runs the Adelaide Oval, and which included $1.8 million for a variety of works stretching back to 2013.

media_camera The revamped Adelaide Oval. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

Mr Richardson said he was reviewing whether the $1.8 million could be regarded as “running costs’’ which should be met by the SMA, rather than paid for out of government funds.

“We consider that the decision to reimburse AOSMA (Adelaide Oval Stadium Management Authority) for works already undertaken...represented a significant change to the information provided by cabinet and accordingly it would have been prudent for cabinet to be informed of those changes,’’ the report says.

“From the information provided to us, the basis for reimbursing AOSMA for works which had occurred in the past, and already paid for by AOSMA, was not clear.’’

The $1.8 million was spent on items such as point-of-sale systems, communications and other items which the State Government said were part of the operations of the Adelaide Oval.

The report also says the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure had said the money had been to “enhance the operations of the stadium’’ but it was now gathering additional information for the Auditor-General.

Interactive Gallery: Revamped Adelaide Oval in all its glory

Transport Minister Stephen Mullighan said it was “inevitable in a project of this scale and complexity that some areas for improvement will be identified’’ and even considering the extra expenditure the Adelaide Oval redevelopment would still come in under budget by about $5.5 million.

“Adelaide Oval was an extremely large and complex project that ultimately achieved an outstanding outcome for South Australia,’’ Mr Mullighan said.

He also said some of the extra funds had been spent on weather-proofing the western grandstand which had been built before football moved to the Oval and had not taken winter weather into consideration, meaning some patrons had been exposed to rain.

Mr Mullighan said future maintenance of the Oval would be paid for out of a sinking fund established under the Adelaide Oval Redevelopment Act and which the SMA would make its first payment into of $2.7 million next financial year.

The Auditor-General report’s also said a $2 million disagreement regarding who would pay for electronic advertising boards at the Oval between the state government and the SMA had been resolved, with the management authority shouldering the cost.