More work for company behind BOM website fiasco
The consulting firm behind the Bureau of Meteorology’s heavily criticised website has been awarded another multi-million-dollar government contract.
The consulting firm behind the weather bureau’s heavily criticised website has been awarded another multimillion-dollar government contract to build a new climate platform.
Accenture Australia was responsible for the $96 million redesign described as a “diabolical shitshow” by Greens science spokesperson Senator Peter Whish-Wilson.
The site was rolled out last October and triggered a barrage of complaints.
Australians flooded the Bureau of Meteorology with criticism that basic details were too hard to find and rain radars were confusing. The new site also launched on a weekend that brought devastating storms to Queensland and Victoria, with many of those affected saying it offered them little warning of the lashing rain, lightning and hail heading their way.
BOM acting chief executive Dr Peter Stone was forced to apologise for “the challenges the change has caused”.
The BOM website is one of the country’s most popular, getting millions of visitors each day. The update launched last October was its first in 12 years.
Whish-Wilson said the decision to return to Accenture for more work “beggars belief”.
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The new contract is valued at almost $16 million, with critics already forecasting another blowout.
“Last year, BOM launched a website that it originally said would cost $4 million, that actually cost $96 million,” Australia Institute democracy and accountability program director Bill Browne said.
“[Some] $78 million of that went straight to Accenture, after the original $31 million contract was ‘extended’ nine times.”
Accenture is now responsible for delivering a new site for the Australian Climate Service, which was established by the Commonwealth in 2021.
It provides a central hub for climate risk data, intelligence and expert advice and is delivered by the BOM, CSIRO, the Australian Bureau of Statistics and Geoscience Australia.
“Australians deserve to get bang for their buck, not another bungle. This is expensive déjà vu,” said Senator Barbara Pocock, the Greens spokesperson for finance, public sector and employment.
It comes as the CSIRO prepares to announce up to 350 job cuts.
This is on top of the 800 positions already slashed over the past 18 months.
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“Scientists will be rightly distraught if they hear that tens of millions of dollars are being spent on new web services when they’re being told there’s no money to pay for their salaries and critical science research,” Whish-Wilson said.
“It would be a national disgrace if even a cent was taken away from the Australian Climate Service’s capacity to carry out science because of the government’s new contract with Accenture.”
Science Minister Tim Ayres told the National Press Club in Canberra last week that the cuts were “difficult but necessary”.
The Canberra Times reported he acknowledged the “human consequences”.
CSIRO chair Ming Long and chief executive Dr Doug Hilton were at Ayres’ speech, where he recognised “the challenging but necessary work of reform and renewal they are leading at our national science agency”.
The Greens have challenged the Albanese government to find the funding needed to avoid more job cuts, pointing to the $368 billion AUKUS nuclear submarine deal and millions in subsidies handed to mining companies.
“In the midst of a climate crisis, $16 million could usefully be used to keep CSIRO scientists employed,” Pocock said.
Browne said the spending reflected a broader pattern.
“Consulting firms are very good at putting in a competitive tender. Then, when the client is hooked and can’t say no without losing the whole project, coming back for more and more money,” he said.
He said the Albanese government had made “some positive steps ‘in-sourcing’ work” but it was still spending hundreds of millions of dollars on consulting firms.
Republished from The Point
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