 |
The Australian government has asked the Bureau of Meteorology to review its website spending. Photo: ABC . |
Mr. Stuart Minchin, Director of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM), was asked to review the unusually high cost of creating a website, after the newly launched platform received public backlash for being difficult to use and lacking important data.
The incident attracted attention when BOM confirmed that the total cost for the new website was up to 96.5 million USD , many times higher than the 4 million USD previously announced. According to this agency, the investment includes 4.1 million USD for design, 79.8 million USD for system construction and 12.6 million USD for security testing.
The new website was launched on October 22 but quickly received criticism. Users said the interface was difficult to navigate, information on the radar map was difficult to read and some important data was inaccessible. Many farmers in Australia expressed frustration because these changes directly affected the monitoring of weather conditions for production.
The federal government was forced to ask BOM to fix the issue after a public outcry. Nine days after its launch, the radar map was reverted to its original version to ensure its accuracy. BOM said it was continuing to adjust the website based on feedback, including adding information on wildfire risk from November 7. Some other updates were delayed due to the impact of Tropical Storm Fina in the northern part of the country.
In a statement to ABC News, BOM said a complete rebuild of the site was necessary to meet modern standards of security, accessibility and performance for millions of users every day.
On the government side, Environment Minister Murray Watt said he met with Mr. Stuart Minchin twice in the past week to express concerns about the implementation process and rising costs. The Minister asked Mr. Minchin to report in detail on the causes of the project's cost overrun and to focus on fixing current technical issues.
 |
Environment Minister Murray Watt expressed concerns about the cost of creating the website. Photo: ABC . |
“I am not happy with the way BOM has managed the transition to the new website,” said Mr. Watt.
In contrast, National Party leader David Littleproud strongly condemned the actual cost of the project, calling it “another Labor disaster.” He criticized the fact that a private consultancy was paid $78 million for the design and construction of the website, while taxpayers were left to foot the total cost of $96 million .
The new platform does not support GPS coordinates and restricts searches by town or postcode, leaving farmers and households without access to vital weather data, Mr Littleproud said. The BOM’s failure to clearly disclose project costs from the start was also considered “worrying”.
Source: https://znews.vn/bat-ngo-voi-chi-phi-lam-website-hon-96-trieu-usd-post1606234.html
Comment (0)