MBIE defends media bill

AN $800,000 bill for media monitoring at the Government’s business super-ministry has been called an extravagance by Labour, but the ministry says the high figure is due to old contracts which have since lapsed.

Figures obtained by Labour reveal the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has spent nearly $800,000 on media monitoring in the last three years – almost a quarter of all government spending on news tracking during that time.

MBIE has defended the amount it spends on tracking how its work is covered by newspapers, radio stations and other media outlets, saying spending is dropping as old contracts expire.

Ministry chief financial officer Iain Cossar said the figures covered a period when the ministry was still operating as four separate agencies, and reflected the ‘‘inherited contractual arrangements’’ that were in place.

Cossar said the media monitoring bill had dropped as the contracts were merged, with a $226,000 bill for the 2014/15 year, compared to $318,815 in 2013/14.

MBIE monitored news stories for all 17 ministerial portfolios it was responsible for, to ensure staff were kept aware of public issues and concerns about their work.

Cossar said earlier this year the ministry conducted an internal review of media monitoring services, which found alternatives such as Google Alerts did not cover all services required, particularly coverage of regional print publications.

The big bill is just the latest embarrassment for MBIE in a series of financial misfires this year. In June, the ministry was the subject of ridicule in Parliament, after it emerged it had spent more than $67,000 on a new sign for its Stout St headquarters in Wellington, $140,000 on a 3.5m curved screen in its reception, $74,000 on a reception desk and $70,000 on a sculpture.

A $560,000 bill last month for an MBIE website overhaul also caused an outcry.

Labour state services spokesman Kris Faafoi said MBIE had ‘‘become a bloated caricature of itself, wallowing in extravagance’’. Its media monitoring bill over eight months was more than twice that of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and almost as much as the total for 18 other government agencies over three years.

Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce accused Labour of being ‘‘deliberately misleading’’ by failing to mention the preexisting contracts.