The snub was revealed by the National Audit Office today in its report into the Major Projects Authority which has been bidding to improve project delivery since its inception last April.

The watchdog said 39 projects in the Government’s £376bn pipeline of major projects across all industries have a warning against them for possible cost overruns.

But senior Treasury officials are still not attending meetings of the MPA despite the number of projects at risk.

The NAO report stated: “Senior officials from HM Treasury’s Public Spending Group only attended two of the six Authority board meetings between April and December 2011, while a representative of Infrastructure UK, a unit within HM Treasury, attended four out of the six.

“HM Treasury is also not routinely using the Authority’s project data to spot and address potential problems across the portfolio of projects.”