The cost of Joyce’s vanity
Written By:
- Date published:
10:47 am, August 25th, 2015 - 21 comments
Categories: Steven Joyce -
Tags: MBIE, spending, waste
Another entry in the ongoing story of Steven Joyce’s ego-ministry: Steven Joyce justifies cost of $600K government website –
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s new website went live yesterday, and the first media release revealed it cost $599,872 to create it.
Just two months ago MBIE was under fire for putting up a sign outside its new premises that cost $67,000 and spending $140,000 on a curved information screen in the reception area.
And the rest. Total $16m.
On the website Joyce claims “it would have cost a lot more to upgrade and maintain the four websites it has replaced”. Someone should ask him for the figures, and the details of this $600K project.
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This government is a joke. NZ tax dollars and state assets seem to be their personal property to be traded and spent on their own grandiose visions. Casinos, conference centers, websites, overseas trips, constant restructuring to move cronies in.
Yeah a bit like or a hell of a lot like te NAZIS
A labour-led Government wouldn’t spend money on these things? Really?
A Labour-led government would not have created a super-ministry, as Joyce did.
so it would have 4 or 5 websites to update?
Yes.
But the point is, if the ministries weren’t combined, their 4-5 websites could be *updated* to reflect the ongoing business of those ministries.
Joyce specifically is saying to *upgrade* the 4-5 websites would be more expensive. Ie he chose to create a brand new website from scratch, as opposed to upgrading the existing 4-5 websites to reflect the new ministry (and having separate websites to reflect different facets of the new ministry is counter-productive anyway). But either of these options is more expensive than simply updating the previous websites, had the ministries not been merged.
Has a Labour government done this?
Or are we just future proving the “labour does it too”?
When the Ministry for the Environment opened in 1987, nearly all of its furniture was recycled from the disbanded Ministry of Works. Some of those manky old desks and shelves dated back to the 1930s.
Well, a Labour led government wouldn’t have Steven Joyce in it – that’s got to be an advantage.
This is most likely the bureaucrats disease. Websites are largely labour with only limited costs in hardware & licensing. Bureacrats tend to go for the lowest risk contracts, ie those that won’t put the blame back on them if the deal goes titsup. Lowest risk = most expensive
MBIE have probably opted for the most expensive contractor and when you’re paying people $1000 per hr instead of $100-150 per hr it’s not hard to knock up a $600k labour bill for a simple website.
Although I don’t know for sure, there’s a high likelihood that the MBIE website has moved to the All of Government “Common Web Platform” which doesn’t have trivial migration costs nor cheap monthly subscription costs.
Certainly no excuse as to why the money has been spent but perhaps an explanation as to how.
For more details check here – https://www.cwp.govt.nz/
Slight cost breakdown here: http://www.mbie.govt.nz/about/whats-happening/news/2015/welcome-to-the-new-mbie-website
How much is a solid Gold Apple laptop worth?
He’s never going to be PM. As compensation he gets to spend more otherpeoplesmoney than anyone else.
+1
We really need a govt to govern the govt
That is called DEMOCRACY where the elected representatives are accountable to the people for the people by the people not some bunch of lobbyist who pay off the judiciary to keep some noses clean in the Nat Party
ScreenShot
Information delivered as PDFs? Nope, we can now categorically prove that the website was not worth $600k. Probably more like $6k – and that would have provided a weeks holiday for the person doing it.
When we go to a government website we need to be able to dig deep into the information provided and not just have to take the bureaucrats polished BS.
Yeah it’s not like its an e-commerce site… I cant understand the costs
Time to sack the Govt and put in Commissioners?
While checking on Michael Woodhouse and his take on Immigration I noticed that is a subset of MoBIE so that comes under Joyce’s purview also. The Minimum of Everything.
Depends what the backend was like and how many systems were tied togeathor.