The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has come under fire for spending $200,000 on an app that has been downloaded just 1,000 times, forcing staff members to post positive reviews in a bid to boost downloads.
In Parliamentary records revealed this week, the Steven Joyce led department forked out $198,067.30 to external provider Alphero to create and develop a New Zealand Regions mobile app.
Designed to promote Regional Economic Activity Report, poor initial downloads have prompted opposition from across the political landscape, chiefly the Labour Party who’ve criticised Joyce’s culture of extravagance.
“It was likely never intended to be used much, just to look good at Steven Joyce’s launch party,” claims David Clark, Spokesperson, Economic Development.
As Clark points out, it appears the makers and MBIE got so worried about lack of interest they rated the app themselves.
“The first three ratings are Nicholas Guthrie and Craig Eades, who work for the app maker Alphero, and Peter Ellis who works for MBIE,” Clark claims.
“Of course they all gave it five stars. Mr Joyce will be pleased with them. There is so much wasted money coming from agencies connected to Steven Joyce.
Clark adds that just last week another of Steven Joyce’s agencies, NZTE, was exposed for spending $30,000 on pounamu pendants for staff and as Tertiary Education Minister he is jointly responsible for the Ministry of Education’s $2.5 million Stairway to Heaven.
“If we want regional New Zealand to prosper, we need to support regional priorities,” Clark adds.