A senior finance official who had an important role in the approval process for a botched green energy scheme said he was not sure his department had the expertise required.
The subsidy subsidised the cost of fuel to encourage the use of renewable heating systems.
But the fuel cost far less than the subsidy users were receiving, meaning they could earn by burning more fuel.
Trevor Cooper's evidence was read out at the inquiry into the scheme.
He said he questioned whether the Department for Trade and Infrastructure (DETI) should have been running the scheme at all.
He said Invest NI might have been a more appropriate vehicle for such an economic policy.
Inquiry counsel Joseph Aiken said Mr Cooper told auditors he believed that the team responsible for the Renewable Heating Incentive (RHI) "believed they had safeguards they did not have".
These included an ability to stop the scheme if necessary.
"I don't believe anyone was trying to mislead, I think they actually believed what they were saying," Mr Cooper told the inquiry.
He said the RHI scheme was a complicated one that needed expertise and resource.
Mr Cooper chaired a committee in March 2012 that was part of a departmental scrutiny process before the scheme went live.
He said he had asked why Northern Ireland needed a distinct scheme, rather than having a distinct regional tariff administered through the existing GB scheme.
He said he was given a "lot of legal jargon" by the then head of DETI's energy division Fiona Hepper, about why that wasn't possible.
He accepted that his concerns were not reflected in the minutes of the meeting and he should have insisted that they were included.
Mr Aiken said it was a recurrent theme in Mr Cooper's evidence that he wished his actions had been recorded.
"You truly wish that what you remember happening was there to be read by the panel as opposed to just taking your word for it," he said.
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