Andrews government defends spending $300,000 on the Breakthrough Victoria website

The state government has splashed $300,000 on creating a website for a government corporation, raising concerns over “wasteful spending” and a lack of transparency.

The Breakthrough Victoria website boasts about investing in innovation and digital technology.

Taxpayers were slugged ­almost $300,000 to create a website for a government ­corporation that boasts about ­investing in innovation and digital technology.

Breakthrough Victoria, an independent company managing a $2bn investment fund from the state government with a goal to “make Victoria a global innovation leader”, also racked up a consultancy bill of $1.4m in 16 months.

On one project, the corporation, the board of which is chaired by former Labor premier John Brumby, spent $588,000 in consultancy fees to roll out software for “customer relationship management”.

It also signed off on a $293,425 contract for Today Strategic Design to design and build its website.

The Andrews government spent ­almost $300,000 of taxpayer money creating the Breakthrough Victoria website. Picture Aaron Francis

According to a quote from website builder GoDaddy, new businesses can start up a standard website for $14.95 a month, while a premium build will cost $19.95 a month.

Opposition industry and ­innovation spokeswoman Bridget Vallence said taxpayers deserved to know if they were getting value for Breakthrough Victoria’s $2bn.

“With Victorians battling to make ends meet, we need to ensure that every dollar spent is growing and supporting the Victorian economy and that there is genuine transparency,” she said.

“There has been secrecy around the Breakthrough Victoria Fund from the beginning.

“Victorians deserve to know more about the fund’s plans.”

Breakthrough Victoria ­describes its purpose as “supporting companies to thrive, whether research institutes, start-up founders or established businesses”.

“We support people and ­innovations from the first spark of an idea right through to companies with ambitions for large scale growth,” its website states.

A Community and Public Sector Union spokesman said: “There are so many examples of wasteful spending in these consultancy spend lists.

“There needs to be more transparency demanded by government from senior executives making these decisions and more detailed probing by the auditor general and other integrity agencies.”

A government spokeswoman defended the cost of the website, saying Breakthrough Victoria “backs the incredible work of Victoria’s world-leading accomplished scientists, researchers and innovators”.

“A competitive process was carried out for the development of Breakthrough Victoria’s website with three parties pitching,” she said.

“It was an extensive project involving two stages of website development, including significant back-end integration.”

Mr Brumby was paid up to $180,000 over 16 months for chairing the board, in line with the Department of Premier and Cabinet’s appointment and remuneration guidelines.