WELLINGTON COUNCIL PAYS CONSULTANTS $90K TO LOCATE THE CONSULTANTS
The consultants were, it turns out, on level four of the building the invoice came from.
Wellington City Council has paid an outside firm $90,000 to work out where its existing consultants physically sit. One staffer called it "the stupidest thing I've seen, and I worked on the Island Bay cycleway".
The scoping job went to a Lambton Quay outfit nobody can pronounce. It ran for eleven weeks. The final report is 47 pages. It concludes the consultants are mostly on level four, with two in Transport on level six, and one who hasn't been seen since June but is still invoicing.
Newtown ratepayer Hemi Kupa, 54, found out from his neighbour, who works in procurement. "Came home pissed off and stayed pissed off," Kupa said. "Ninety grand. To find blokes at desks. The desks have name plates. The name plates have names. It's not a manhunt."
A comms staffer, who asked to be called "Megan because that's not my name", said the project was costed at $40k. It blew out after the consultants hired a sub-consultant to find a consultant who works from home on Fridays. "He was in Days Bay. We knew he was in Days Bay. He posts about Days Bay on LinkedIn!"
A council spokesperson said the work delivered "valuable spatial clarity around our advisory workforce footprint" and would inform a forthcoming review. The scope of that review is being drafted by consultants. Asked if those consultants had been located, the spokesperson said they'd come back to us.
The original consultants, now formally located, have been engaged on follow-up work to determine what they do. That contract is valued at $140,000.
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Reader Letters
Trev_Hornby
Consultants creating work for consultants, bloody typical!
Margaret_F
This has to be some sort of elaborate joke, right? $90k to find out people are where they work! What's next, paying them to check if coffee is still wet?
BarryBishopdale
A few grand would cover the cost of a sign on the office door. This council is a piss-take.
couchgremlin
Lol, those consultants are going to need consultants to find their arses soon.
sandrathelawyer
Technically, there’d be GST on the $90k, so really they only spent about $78,000! Still ridiculous though.
HemiKupaNewtown
I wasn't joking when I said I was pissed off. We pay rates for this nonsense? Every time it's like they've never worked in an office before!
Garry (Halswell)
Back in the day, a phone call was enough. Now you need a search party for a bloke with an email address.
kiwi_conspiracy_theorist
THIS IS HOW THEY KEEP CONTROL, PEOPLE! Make it confusing, waste money, keep you distracted. WAKE UP WELLINGTON!