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Secret Briefings & An Official Information Request To WCC

Project Odyssey

Secret Briefings & An Official Information Request To WCC

By Ian Apperly Blogged at strathmorepark Thursday, 29 January 2015.

Comment On This Post At strathmorepark

The Mayor and Councillors were briefed behind closed doors last night on Project Odyssey. We, the ratepayers, are no nearer to having our questions answered after nearly a month. The lights are dark. People are hiding behind their filing cabinets. Though, Helene Ritchie this morning has told Wellington.Scoop Chief Executive Kevin Lavery will answer those thirty-five questions.

Update:
We were assured yesterday by the CEO that your 35 questions will be answered by him.
Regards Helene Ritchie Councillor

That’s fantastic news, and I applaud Helene for showing her concern and updating us, the public. Every other Councillor and the Mayor have seemingly vanished on the issue. Who knows why? We have no idea what they have been briefed on. Are they confused? Have they been gagged?

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Regardless, the information requests have gone in formally via FYI.org.nz today (See also text of request copied below), here’s hoping that the CE will answer the thirty-five questions so Council Officers don’t have to run around spending our taxpayer dollars on asking questions that the public have a definite right to know.

It really isn’t good enough. If this is how they handle an issue like this, then what about the other eight projects that we are all investing our rates in? Shall we examine those as well? Perhaps we should. And how is amalgamation tied up in all of this, and those other projects, and who is the power behind that? This is an exercise in transparency.

The old style of behind closed doors, thinking they know better than us, and not engaging with the community simply will not stand. Don’t get me wrong, the vast majority of the Council officers and Councillors are in that camp, we just seem to have some recalcitrant dinosaurs that are not prepared to change their ways. Sooooo many questions!

Ian Apperley made this Official Information Act request to Wellington City Council

From: Ian Apperley
January 29, 2015

Dear Wellington City Council,

Please find a number of requests below for official information in relation to Project Odyssey and related IT Projects.

Documents can be emailed to me at the contact address below, if they are too large, I am happy to drop in a USB Drive or make a Cloud service available for them to be copied too. Given that these are all public record, I assume this won’t be an issue. Requests:

1. Can I please have all copies of all written communication (letters, emails, file notes) between WCC and other regional councils concerning Project Odyssey, as well as records of meetings being held and agendas for those meetings.

2. Please supply the original tender evaluation material for Project Odyssey that was released to the market including any additional documents released through the process.

3. Please supply the original scoring template, including weighting, and any other versions of that document during the life of the tender. I don’t want the respondents identified or their scores, I want the empty template of requirements.

4. Any presentation, hard copy documentation, or any other material that was used to brief the Council on the 28th of January 2015 in relation to Project Odyssey or any other IT Project.

5. The Wellington City Council’s Information Systems Strategic Plan, or any similar IT strategy documents, that show the plans for IT at the Council over the next two to three years.

6. How many staff, or contractors, at the WCC are former employees of Technology One?

7. Were any former employees of Technology One involved in the writing of, the evaluation of, or managing the process of the Project Odyssey tender?

8. How were conflicts of interest managed during the tender and what was the nature of those, if any?

9. Were the Department of Internal Affairs Common Capability services analysed as part of the tender, if they were, why were they discounted, and if they were not, why not?

10. Please supply a copy of the Gift Register for the IT Department, or, the gift register that the IT department is required to use, for the period of 2014 and January 2015.

11. A list of the functions of the systems that Project Odyssey seeks to replace.

12. Without identifying tender responders, release the information as to why responders were NOT successful.

13. What is the expected cost of Project Odyssey over the next three years?

14. Was there any Quality Assurance, and or, independent Probity carried out on the tender process? If yes, please can I have copies of any formal reports that were given to the Wellington City Council.

Thank you in advance and if you have any questions please contact me directly.

Yours faithfully,

Ian Apperley

Comment On This Post At strathmorepark

*************

Ian Apperly is a Freelance Writer and sometimes ICT Consultant. "I've been in IT for over twenty years and a freelance writer for longer. I live in Wellington, New Zealand, the city on the edge of the world."@ianapperley on twitter. Blogs at http://strathmorepark.org/ . Appears occasionally at scoop.co.nz .

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