The full cost of the Bureau of Meteorology’s recent website overhaul has been revealed, days after the revamp prompted a torrent of complaints and an apology from the BoM itself.
ICYMI, the agency was at the receiving end of some pretty intense backlash last week when it unveiled its first website redesign in 12 years.
While the revamp, dubbed “modern and sleek” by the Bureau, was intended to make weather updates clearer and easier to access, the result was the opposite for scores of Aussies. Many of them flocked to social media to criticise the new site’s quality, usability and layout, among many other complaints.
It all culminated earlier this week with multiple members of the federal government — including Energy Minister Chris Bowen and Environment Minister Murray Watt — demanding that the Bureau fix the website and work on improvements in consultation with state and territory emergency services ministers.
But now, just as the dust was settling, a new report from The Guardian has revealed the eye-watering $86 million cost of the BoM website redesign.
The agency confirmed the staggering number took into account both the public-facing and backend elements of the new website.
While the $4.6 million cost of the front-facing aspect of the site was already known, it turns out that was just the tail-end of a much bigger overhaul known as Robust, which set the Bureau back some $866 million in total.
10 per cent of that ($86 million) was devoted specifically to the overall site and its supporting systems, according to The Guardian.
The figure was derived in part from the Bureau’s contracts with consulting firms like Accenture, which was involved in the website overhaul at a cost of $78 million, despite the original contract terms forecasting just $31 million.
Meanwhile, fellow firm Deloitte received $35 million for its work on the site instead of the original $11 million forecasted.
In a statement to The Guardian, the BoM justified the Robust program as a way of “improving the security, stability and resilience of [the site’s] supporting infrastructure and data”.
But politicians, like The Nationals leader David Littleproud, weren’t sold, saying the cost was “unbelievable”.
“Australians deserve to know, why was so much money spent and what improvements were actually made?” Littleproud said, per The Guardian.
It comes after the BoM’s acting CEO Peter Stone issued an apology at the height of the backlash over the redesign, saying on Wednesday that the agency “didn’t make the change lightly”.
“We appreciate that it will take time for some to adjust. I sincerely apologise for the challenges the change has caused,” Stone said in a statement.
On Friday, the BoM reverted to the former colour scheme on the radar and weather map in response to the complaints, but for many folks, the (extremely expensive) damage had already been done.
Lead image: WikiCommons
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