[Mr TW]

A $1 million Government recruitment drive to link New Zealand employers with skilled overseas migrants has attracted adverts for only two vacancies this year: a nurse and a hairdresser.

The Government admits that the website NetworkZ Online is not up to scratch and is reviewing it. The Immigration New Zealand website aims to attract skilled foreign workers to help ease the country's skills shortage.

Twenty-eight job vacancies were on the website last year.

Yesterday there were only two; a registered nurse and a hairdresser or cosmetologist.

The National Party says the website - which cost $1.15 million to design and set up, and a further $86,400 a year to keep running - is a failure.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10426411


....oh dear oh dear! :no

[Ana&Steve]

hmmm, I was just checking out that link today...guess it might not behoove us to fill out the profile after all.:confused:
Ana

[Anita & Marco]

It is so sad that mis-spending tax payers money is still going on that strong here in NZ.

This is only one example, I am afraid.
A few skilled IT-ers have been used to set it up probably and been paid pretty well for the job. Do you understand now why there is a skilled shortage expecially in IT? Some people in government come up with great ideas/projects, however, they forget about the implementation and the running after the set up phase.

Cheers,
Anita

PS Sorry sounding this cynical

[stu70]

It is so sad that mis-spending tax payers money is still going on that strong here in NZ.

This is only one example, I am afraid.
A few skilled IT-ers have been used to set it up probably and been paid pretty well for the job. Do you understand now why there is a skilled shortage expecially in IT? Some people in government come up with great ideas/projects, however, they forget about the implementation and the running after the set up phase.

Cheers,
Anita

PS Sorry sounding this cynical

No you are not sounding cynical at all. Govt has the magic to turn gold into horse manure. We call it the anti midas touch here. All Govts are blessed with this amazing knack. Incompetence is very contagious and travels fast from one Govt dept to another.

[Ana&Steve]

PS Sorry sounding this cynical
Doesn't sound cynical to me, sounds more like upset that they botched something good that you could've gotten behind; good reminder to me that governments worldwide share many of the same traits.:roll
Ana

[Trigirl]

good reminder to me that governments worldwide share many of the same traits.
very true :no

[Anita & Marco]

I also think it might be a bit more 'visible' in NZ - especially in Wellington. My impression is that it was slightly better where I came from, but maybe there I was further away from the government (LUCKILY!!!!).

That is a big advantage of the government here - it is so clear what is going wrong and who is responsible - unfortunately, it doesn't make a difference at the end of the day.

Cheers,
Anita

[stu70]

I also think it might be a bit more 'visible' in NZ - especially in Wellington. My impression is that it was slightly better where I came from, but maybe there I was further away from the government (LUCKILY!!!!).

That is a big advantage of the government here - it is so clear what is going wrong and who is responsible - unfortunately, it doesn't make a difference at the end of the day.

Cheers,
Anita

The real problem is that of accountability. As soon as public money kicks in, it seems as if no one individual has to bear the brunt anymore. Would you be able to get away with a project in the private sector that cost you 1 million bucks and didn't add any tangible benefit?

But if you are dealing with public purse, well they might just choose to form a committee to investigate what went wrong with this first project. A year and another million dollars later you will get a half-a** report stating the obvious;"poor requirements gathering led to this situation and more effort should have gone into initiation and planning phases of this project". This is not NZ only problem. I am upset about the same stuff that happens in my own country! The best form of Govt is where the public sector does the very minimum (defence, foreign affairs, etc.) and the rest is left for "real" workers like you and I.

[barryp]

Would you be able to get away with a project in the private sector that cost you 1 million bucks and didn't add any tangible benefit?

In my experience, working in IT for decades in the private sector, I'd have to say: yes, that happens all the time in the private sector. I'd add that out of control egos and attempts to build legacies unrelated to shareholder value are the norm and not the exception.

There is rarely a rational economic calculus at work in the private sector either - once you've put half a mil into a project with little result, the tendency is to spend another half mil to avoid humiliation. (The technical term for this is 'throwing good money after bad', adn it takes a strong will to kill any project into which lots of money has already been poured.)

So I find any attempt to blame this relatively small fiasco (yes, a million is a lot to me as a person, but in the realm of large corporations and governments, it isn't large at all) on government per se to be misguided.

I do find it instructive and not encouraging that the questions now asked are 'how to redo this site?' questions as opposed to 'why are we doing this again?' questions.