Friday is the last day of the multi-million dollar COVID-19 Hotel Quarantine Inquiry, ending with the grilling of Victoria’s Premier Daniel Andrews.

Senior members of Victoria’s government claim, under oath, that they had nothing to do with decisions that lead to the second wave of COVID-19 in Victoria.

Victoria’s Health Minister Jenny Mikakos on Thursday said she was not aware of who approved the use of private security guards and that she had not been consulted on the program. When asked by the inquiry when she became aware of the use of private security contractors, she said she had only learned security guards – contracted by the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions –  were being used in May when the outbreak at the Rydges Hotel on Swanston Street emerged, two months after the program began in March.

On 29 March, Ms Mikakos stood beside Victoria’s Job Minister Martin Pakula who confirmed private security would be patrolling hotels for returned travellers.

Some Labor MPs are also furious with her evidence, claiming they were briefed in April about the use of private security guards. The Premier’s Office on 8 April had sent out a briefing note stating “People returning to Australia will be fed and transported at no cost to them, while police, private security and health authorities will be able to more efficiently monitor their compliance with quarantine requirements.”

READ MORE: Victoria’s Health Minister Jenny Mikakos grilled at hotel quarantine inquiry

Asked about Operation Soteria, named after the Greek goddess for safety and salvation, she said it was not run by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

She told the inquiry “the fact that the DHHS is designed as the control agency for the pandemic response as a whole did not mean DHHS was running operation Soteria.”

Arthur Moses SC, a barrister briefed by Unified Security, asked Ms Mikakos: “Do you accept that as a minister of the Crown, you would have no way of knowing whether the DHHS was actually executing its role pursuant to the Operation Soteria plan unless you actually had access to the plan?”

She replied, “I think you’re misconstruing what a minister’s role is.’’

The DHHS’ public health team advised Ms Mikakos “that the private security contractors engaged to participate in the quarantine program had the contractual responsibility to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) and infection prevention and control training to their staff”.

In mid-June, Ms Mikakos said she had become “exasperated” following the outbreaks and she pushed to replace the security guards, and called on the department to develop options that included using Victoria Police.

READ MORE: Mikakos on Twitter: ‘It’s easy to forget that pandemics have shaped world history for millenia’

Anna Robertson, the lawyer acting for MSS Security, said her company had also offered services in South Australia and Western Australia. She said the other states had department infection control officials on site 24×7 to provide advice, a model which was not in place in Victoria. She also added that in the other states, travellers were not permitted fresh air breaks as had been the case in Victoria.

The Health Workers Union on Wednseday published a letter accusing Ms Mikakos of “repeated mismanagement of the Victorian health system” . The letter addressed to Premier Daniel Andrews was signed by HWY secretary Diana Asmar and said that Ms Mikakos lacked “even a basic understanding of her portfolio”.

“Sadly, our union’s relationship with your government is now officially dead,” Ms Asmar wrote, adding that she was accustomed to dealing “with individuals who display pomposity and arrogance, even when their ability does not warrant it. Ms Mikakos, through her incompetence, has turned the HWU, a once supportive stakeholder of your government, into an actively hostile one.”

The influential Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation criticised Ms Asmar’s letter, defending Ms Mikakos as “a hard-working minister who is across her portfolio”.

The union’s Victorian branch secretary, Lisa Fitzpatrick, suggested that Ms Asmar’s letter was factionally motivated, pointing to Ms Asmar as a player in Labor’s internal politics.

“ANMF does not usually comment on left and right politics, but on this occasion it is concerned that matters unrelated to the health portfolio are at play,” Ms Fitzpatrick said.