Dundee City Council has had to roll over more than £10 million of funding that had been earmarked to be spent on the V&A this financial year.
The local authority had planned to spend £11.395 million on the museum before March 31.
But it has now emerged that just £1 million will be spent this year after reports that delays in the project mean there is dramatically less for them to spend the money on.
It is understood that the delay has been caused by the city council and preferred contractor BAM Construction haggling over the cost of the building, which had a long-anticipated £45 million price tag.
The attempt to find savings has been prompted by fears that the centrepiece of the waterfront redevelopment could cost millions of pounds more than originally predicted.
In a recent interview, Mike Galloway, director of city development, refused to guarantee that the museum would be completed on budget.
Work was due to start on the museum in August, according to previous official documents, but ground has yet to be broken and only £170,000 has so far been spent on the project, with just four months left of this financial year.
It is now thought it could take until at least January for an agreed cost to be presented to councillors.
The museum’s director, Philip Long, recently said it was still the “ambition” for the V&A to open in 2017.
A Dundee City Council spokeswoman said: “The council had anticipated spending this money, but it will be used in later years.
“We are still in negotiations with the preferred contractor to refine their proposals. A tender report will be brought to committee in due course.”
When plans for the museum were launched in 2011, it was proposed that the museum would open this year.
BAM Construction declined to comment.