Wellington's deputy mayor has slammed the council's more than $600,000 spend on a website for the capital's new library, labelling it ''an atrocious amount of money''.
Figures seen by RNZ revealed the total cost of designing and building the website was $595,801.
There was also a $72,000 bill for a year of hosting the website and maintenance.
Comment has been requested from the council.
The contract went to Journey Digital, an Auckland-based agency.
In a Facebook post, Wellington City deputy mayor Ben McNulty said the hefty price tag had left him lost for words.
''I found out about the existence of this website and its cost the day after the Council Grants Committee had met and been forced to decline $3m in community funding due to a record volume of applications.
"I don't have the words, at least ones that are publicly appropriate to convey my utter dismay," he said.
Ben McNulty said $600,000 was ''an atrocious amount of money to be spent on this type of website".
''A developer on Fiverr could have built something similar for 1/40th of the cost. I know this from first-hand experience having built and managed both websites and content management systems prior to joining council,'' he said.
''Whilst I'm confident the message of value for money is making its way through the council organisation, we clearly have ways to go yet. I have no doubt that for those community groups who we said no to, these words will bring little comfort.''
This story was first published on rnz.co.nz |  |
