‘Nightmare case study’: BOM grilled over bungled $96m website upgrade
The Bureau of Meteorology’s controversial $96m website upgrade has been slammed as a “nightmare case study in contract failure”.
The Bureau of Meteorology’s controversial $96m website upgrade has been slammed as a “nightmare case study in contract failure”, as the Albanese government calls for greater oversight of consultants.
BOM chief executive Stuart Minchin was grilled before Senate estimates late on Monday night over the new website, which he admitted showed the agency “did not get it right for some sectors of the community”.
Dr Minchin, who took the reigns of the beleaguered bureau just three weeks ago, said the website upgrade – part of sweeping technology upgrades – had faced cost blowouts and multiple production hurdles.
“The program was delivered throughout the extended Covid-19 pandemic, which impacted key labour markets, and also during a period of beyond forecast inflation, which particularly impacted technology costs,” Dr Minchin said.
“Accordingly, the robust program (the wider upgrades) ultimately closed on July 25, 2024, having materially met over 90 per cent of its intended outcomes.
“Total expenditure was $866m.
“The $78m difference between the original budget and the final amount was funded out of departmental funding and in-line with budget process operational rules.”
Greens Senator Barbara Pocock slammed the upgrades as a “nightmare case study in contract failure” and a “failure in leadership”, riddled by “completely unacceptable and unethical behaviour by the very big consultants”
In response, Environment Minister Murray Watt levelled blame at the former Coalition government.
“This may well be a contract that demonstrates the need for greater oversight and of consultants and greater use of public sector capacity wherever possible,” he said.
Senator Watt noted no public servants were appointed specifically by the former government to manage the project.
“To the extent that there have been cost overruns or other problems with this project, I would suggest that it might have been wise to spend a little bit of money employing some public servants in the BOM who could actually manage this project, rather than requiring the BOM to manage it with their existing resources and then outsource everything to consultants,” Senator Murray said.
Dr Minchin said the suite of upgrades was originally budgeted at $788m – it ultimately blew out, the hearing was told, to about $800m.
“The program as a whole went roughly 15 per cent over budget,” he said.
Only about 10 per cent of the final funding went to the website.
Dr Minchin said the BOM needed to “completely transform” its vast technology systems following a “significant cyber intrusion” and outages in 2015-16.
The program was funded in three tranches, beginning with $91.5m in the 2017-18 budget.
Dr Minchin said there was no contingency budgeted for the project when it was originally funded, and that the blow out was typical for “major technology projects”.
Originally published as ‘Nightmare case study’: BOM grilled over bungled $96m website upgrade
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