OPINION
Dear Editor
It is another Hipkins disaster.
https://www.thepost.co.nz/politics/350246034/how-did-cost-moving-two-schools-blow-out-more-400m
I have been in the building industry for over twenty years and I have done a lot of schools. I find them a low margin business for several reasons. I obviously am moving in the wrong circles. Like all government departments, if you are one of the favoured few, it helps a lot.
MoE is a nightmare to deal with compared with private industry, especially for getting answers and a sound brief and scope. Contractors (and sometimes the designers) are often the lowest tenderers, looking at the headline cost, not the value or final cost.
In this article, unless there is something unusual, I can’t see where the money has gone. The buildings look single level so that immediately makes the construction and design cheaper.
What are the iwi costs that contributed to a $3m cost? How do you spend $17m in design costs on a school?
“Ministry documents show the design costs alone reached more than $17m. School and iwi costs were more than $3m and relocating council hockey turf to the new site cost $4.5m.”
Geoff