Do you have a compulsory strata manager appointed by any chance?
If so they probably don’t need the owners approval and and they can use who they want to effect the repairs.
If not then generally approval from the owners would normally be required for large scale repairs and special levies, subject to the strata managers contract terms.
Rumors abound in strata so I would not read to much into the rort theory although having said that it’s always possible.