Infrastructure Victoria, the Andrews government's purpose-built advisory body on major projects, does not have the authority to give advice on any government plan or project unless it is specifically asked to.
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The limited nature of the new agency's role emerged before a parliamentary committee on Wednesday, and was pounced on by Victoria's Opposition as evidence it is more "infrastructure lapdog" than watchdog.
Infrastructure Victoria chief executive Michel Masson told a state parliament inquiry into infrastructure projects that the authority was bound by what projects the government asked it to analyse.
For this reason, it has offered no advice on two of the government's biggest projects, the Melbourne Metro rail tunnel or the Western Distributor toll road, Mr Masson said.
"Infrastructure Victoria was created in October 2015, which is too recent to have been included in the discussions for those two specific projects," he said.
"We can only provide advice on request, which we receive from the government. And we have not received any of those requests, hence why Infrastructure Victoria has not expressed any views on the Western Distributor."
The Andrews government announced last week that it would commit $2 billion to the $5.5 billion Western Distributor project, with the rest to be paid for by Transurban, which owns CityLink.
The authority received $10 million in last year's state budget, but shadow treasurer Michael O'Brien said the money was a waste because it had failed to review any current major projects.
"Daniel Andrews is taking Victorians for mugs by establishing an infrastructure body but refusing to take advice from it on any projects," Mr O'Brien said.
Infrastructure Victoria was set up by the Andrews government in October to "independently assess the economic, environmental and social merits of major projects", according to a statement released at the time.
It is in the early stages of preparing a 30-year project priority list for the state. It will also advise the government on the best location for Melbourne's next major container port, Hastings or the west of Port Phillip Bay.
Business cases for the Melbourne Metro rail tunnel and the Western Distributor were submitted to the federal government's advisory body, Infrastructure Australia, for assessment, in the hope of securing federal funds.
"We're getting on with building the projects that Victorians voted for, in a more transparent manner than any government before us," a government spokesman said.
