A Wellington web designer is calling the city council's decision to spend $600,000 on an Auckland company to develop a new library website an "insulting, stupid" move.
Written by Alexa Cook of RNZ
Through an Official Information request by a member of the public, it's been revealed that Wellington City Council paid Auckland's Journey Digital $595,801 to design and build a new website for Te Matapihi, Wellington central Library.
The council said the the new website was to promote the library and drive as much visitation as possible.
The site is separate from the existing library website where people can become a member, reserve books, and check the catalogue.
Wellington City mayor Andrew Little said he was shocked at the cost and has launched an independent investigation.
"I was blown away. I was literally incredulous, I couldn't believe it.
"When I asked 'is that right? Are you sure that's right? Surely that must involve other things?', but no, that was the website cost.
"Then when I went to have a look at the website itself and saw how frankly simple it was, it didn't add up," Little said.
Wellingtonian Iona Elwood-Smith owns a website design company called Grow My Business and said the council's decision "adds insult to injury" because the library was such an iconic part of the city and has taken years to be re-built.
"It's been such a missing part of the heart of Wellington, and then to find out that the website was built from outside Wellington is just insulting.
"That our local council would make those kind of decisions ... it's like, feed your family first mate," she said.
Elwood-Smith said Wellington was well known for being home to a number of talented tech companies, and she was wondering why the council felt it needed to look elsewhere.
"What would make them make such an insulting, stupid decision. We would feel a whole lot better about $600,000 if it was coming back into the Wellington economy," she said.
Little said the investigation will be thorough.
"I'm really keen to get to the bottom of what has happened in terms of the commissioning of the project, what the process was, how it was managed and what the scope was ... and are we getting what we paid for?," he said.
The mayor was worried this could be linked to wider issues at Wellington City Council.
"If there are systemic problems inside council I need to know that so I can work with the chief executive to get those things fixed," Little said.
Elwood-Smith said while there were some 'really cool' features on the new website, overall it looked like it had been designed by a committee and it did not reflect the hefty price tag.
"It's an insane amount of money," she said.
Journey Digital told RNZ that it was up to the council to respond.
"As a matter of policy, we don't discuss the details of our client engagements publicly, so I'd respectfully direct questions to the council's media team," a spokesperson said.
Wellington City Council responds
Wellington City Council said all staff have been made aware of the need to save money, particularly budget managers, and that a similar website would not be commissioned today.
The council's chief operating officer is accountable for the spend, which is delegated according to its delegations policy.
The council said under the policy, the executive leadership team can approve spend up to $750,000, and that for large projects such as the library redevelopment its standard process was for the chief executive to delegate spending transactions to the senior responsible officer.
It said the spend did not go through the council's chief financial officer because that was not required under the policy.
The council said the delivery of the website followed a staged procurement approach.
"An initial phase was undertaken through a competitive process, with formal evaluation and due diligence," a spokesperson said.
"Whilst Wellington companies were amongst those invited to submit a proposal, the preferred supplier was Auckland-based as [they] met the evaluation criteria more closely.
"Whilst being Wellington based was one criteria that was considered, ultimately Journey was selected as they most closely matched the experience needed and could deliver the website in the required timeframe."
The spokesperson said the website was part of the overall Te Matapihi project.
"Visitor experience, specialist creative spaces, an integrated service model, cultural design and mana whenua partnership were confirmed as core design principles of Te Matapihi and were reflected throughout the approved project scope.
"These were not discretionary additions, but part of delivering a civic facility that reflects Wellington's identity and commitments.
"As with all elements of the project, these components were scoped, procured and costed within the overall programme budget."
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