The Taxpayers’ Union was gobsmacked to find out that the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) spent $2,867,937 on website redevelopment of which $114,386 was spent on rebranding, including a new logo and colour palette.
Information released to the Taxpayers’ Union under the Official Information Act also shows that the website maintenance has jumped to $206,880 per year, a significant increase from the $86,561 that they told the Education and Workforce Committee just three months ago.
Commenting on this, Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy said: “It’s no wonder that more and more schools are moving away from from NZQA’s preferred NCEA system when they waste money on extravagant pet projects like website refreshes while core software such as for digital examinations continues to fail.
“Parents, students and teachers just want a simple website that works as intended so that kids can get the first-class education system they deserve. Instead, they are stuck with flashy rebrands that focus more on the new ‘visual identity’ then ensuring students are well equipped for learning and working in the 21st century.
“This rebrand is almost seven times more expensive than the Human Rights Commission’s new website that we revealed last year. The Minister must urgently issue a ‘please explain’ to NZQA who are not even able to provide a cost breakdown of where this money went.
“There is a worrying trend across government where departments use the need to make technical changes to a website and then use it as an opportunity to do a complete makeover. This adds unnecessary cost for no benefit to taxpayers and must be stopped.”
ENDS