Vanity project or excellent value?: ORC's $200k website

Development of a new regional council website has been labelled a “vanity project”, after official information shows it cost Otago ratepayers more than $200,000.

The Taxpayers’ Union  released the information, which was provided to it through the Local Government Official Information and Meeting Act .

“Otago seems to have outperformed most of its northern counterparts by spending $221,764.12 without shelling out another bundle on changing its logo or corporate identity," Taxpayer’s Union Local Government campaigns manager Sam Warren says.

“Interestingly, the project contained $15,176.90 worth of local Māori engagement, which includes translation services and the integration of ‘Whakataukī’ – or Māori proverbs. Comparatively, the website testing phase cost Otago ratepayers a more modest $553.06

"A few more features are well and good, but after looking at an indexed version of the council’s website from 2017, we aren’t actually convinced this project was much more than a vanity project footed by ratepayers.”

ORC strategy and customer general manager Amanda Vercoe disagrees with that, saying community feedback had shown the website, which had not been upgraded since 2017, was the main source of information for people.

“We knew from feedback that the website was difficult to navigate and that documents and material were difficult to find with over 10,000 files stored in the old website, which had not been upgraded since 2017.

“The new website also needed to be upgraded so that it could efficiently be seen and used on mobile phones, which now accounts for over 70 percent of our web traffic, and rising.”

Mrs Vercoe says the investment in mana whenua engagement speaks to ORC’s partnership commitment and bringing it to life through the new website.

“This was using the services of a contracted designer and a translator for the mana whenua aspect of the website.

“Much of the work was delivered internally by ORC staff which significantly reduced the cost of building an entirely new website for the council, including much of the testing of the project. The $553.06 was for additional community based user testing.

“We feel that the final cost for what has been delivered demonstrates excellent value. We are really proud of the final website.

“This was a budgeted project in the work-plan that was tendered through the GETS platform in early 2023, and delivered in July 2024.”