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# Letter to the Editor
- URL: https://goodoil.news/letter-to-the-editor-38/
- Published: 2024-04-23T19:30:00.000Z
- Updated: 2024-04-23T18:35:09.000Z
- Author: Letter to the Editor
- Tags: Education, NZ, NZ Politics, Politics, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-06-28 02:24

Dear Editor

It is another Hipkins disaster.

[https://www.thepost.co.nz/politics/350246034/how-did-cost-moving-two-schools-blow-out-more-400m](https://www.thepost.co.nz/politics/350246034/how-did-cost-moving-two-schools-blow-out-more-400m?ref=goodoil.news)

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,](https://www.thepost.co.nz/politics/350246034/how-did-cost-moving-two-schools-blow-out-more-400m?ref=goodoil.news) 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

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