Pegrum said she had contemplated

leaving her $250,000-plus-

a-year job months before receiving

the auditor-general's draft report.

Her colleagues said she stuck

around long enough to support her

staff through a federal parliamentary

inquiry into the NCA.

The inquiry ended on Wednesday

amid claims it lacked accountability

and Ms Pegrum had too many roles;

claims she rejected.

She referred to a lost $300,000

related to a contractor, which was

detailed in the Australian National

Audit Office's report, saying the

money was being recovered. Asked

about foreign missions' failure to pay

$385 million in rent, ! she said it was a

matter of Government policy.

The audit report said the NCA had

failed to maintain Scrivener Dam.

But an NCA spokesman said the

ActewAGL's most recent inspection

of the dam found it had been

maintained satisfactorily.

Ms Pegrum said she supported the

parliamentary inquiry and felt it was

essential the strategic plan for the

whole of the ACT reside in the

Federal Parliament.

The authority has lost more than a

third of its staff this year.

It also lost funding for its main

work, the Griffin Legacy blueprint for

Canberra's planning.

The legacy's chief architect, Graham

Scott-Bohanna, author David

Headon and senior planner Ian

Wood-Bradley have left the NCA.

Ms Pegrum said she was leaving a

year before her term expired, in the

interests of staff and the authority.

''I don't think I could have ever

imagined a job you would feel so

privileged to do, or one that would

give you the kind of opportunities to

contribute to your national capital

but also my home town.''

Less than a year ago, she was

hailed ''Queen of Canberra'' after she

was made a Member of the Order of

Australia for services to planning,

promoting and enhancing the

national capital.

At a celebratory dinner afterwards,

then territories minister Jim Lloyd

said he had never seen a presentation

to match Ms Pegrum's, which

swayed the former government to

embrace the Griffin Legacy.

It won bipartisan support in Parliament

but was savaged by prominent

architects, who said it was a massive

development application that would

suffocate inner Canberra.

While its amendments are embedded

in the National Capital Plan, the

new Rudd Government cut

$46million from the project, ending

plans to turn Constitution Avenue

into a grand Parisian-style boulevard.

A governance expert told the parliamentary

inquiry this week that Ms

Pegrum had carved out a role separate

to the authority's board, which

had little capacity to act as a

governing body. Ms Pegrum said the

chief executive's role was set out in

law, as was her relationship with the

NCA board.

Speculation of her resignation had

grown since the start of this year.

Last year, Ms Pegrum addressed a

hostile public meeting on the NCA's

proposal to revitalise the Albert Hall

area.

She said yesterday many people

did not understand that proposals for

the hall were only drafts.

She said that, adding to the confusion,

the ACT Government had

been considering changing its management

structures, which coincided

with the NCA's draft amendment.

!

''Very quickly, the authority took

on public comment and made a

number of changes to the draft and

committed to additional consultation.''

She said there was no evidence to

support claims the NCA had been

politicised. ''We have an excellent

track record of achievement of professionalism,

so I can say with

absolute confidence the authority

has not been politicised. I have had

three chairman, many members and

six ministers and the authority has

always acted as an independent.''