Liberal Member for Yerrabi Leanne Castley MLA has called on Sport and Recreation Minister Yvette Berry to explain what is happening with the tender process to fix the problem-plagued Gungahlin pool.

During estimates hearings last week, Minister Berry said a tender process was underway to repair the pool, but no tenders have been published on the TendersACT website.

“Minister Berry must tell the community what is going on with the tender to find someone to complete the huge repair job if Gungahlin residents are to have any confidence in her claim the pool should be open by summer,” said Ms Castley.

“There is no confidence in this government to fix the pool properly, given no one can identify what exactly the problem is.

“The design and construction contract to build the $27.8m pool in 2014 was awarded through an open tender. What will be the process this time?

“All we know is the contract will involve a complete repair of the pool, but given it is shrouded in mystery and we don’t really know what the technical experts discovered, who knows what a contractor will find once all the tiles are removed.”

The Labor-Greens government settled with the construction company which built the pool with the builder handing over $400,000.

“I understand it will cost a lot more than $400,000 to fix our community pool, which has been closed for one year,” Ms Castley said.

“From day one I have been calling on Minister Berry to tell us how much the bill will be. The recent Budget allocated money to fix the pool for 2020-21 and 2021-22 but the government did not disclose the amount, so it is anyone’s guess.”