Business case for Translink £1m Website

Dear Department for Infrastructure (Northern Ireland),

Translink recently spent over £1m on a new website. The cost did not include the cost of the online journey planner which was funded through a separate service contract valued at £800,000+ over 3 years.

The breakdown of the £1 million spend is below:

Concepts: £171,270
Construction: £557,244
Project management: £100,000
Security: £80,141
Hosting set up: £19,000
Optimum bias: £139,148
Total: £1,066,803

The website delivered is of very limited scale or complexity. Note again that the journey planner functionality was not included in the £1m spend and was tendered separately (£800K+)

Given the importance of operating with regularity and propriety and the need for efficiency, economy, effectiveness and prudence in the administration of public resources, to deliver value for money when it comes to public money I would like the Department to provide some information.

For your information, the Department of Finance provided the response below when a previous FOI request was submitted to that Department.

"The Department of Infrastructure have not requested Department of Finance approval for business case in respect to Translink’s Corporate Website.

DoF has delegated to departments authority to enter into commitments and to spend within defined limits, subject to certain restrictions. Delegation arrangements are established with departments on the basis of criteria set out in Managing Public Money Northern Ireland (MPMNI) and Dear Accounting Officer (DAO) Letter 06/12. Under Section 21 of the FOI Act 2000, this information is reasonably accessible by other means and can be found at the attached link."

I would request that the Department provides:

1) a copy of any business case, economic appraisal, supporting evidence, etc submitted to it in respect to Translink’s Corporate Website;

2) detail of any Capital Funding that was provided to Translink in relation to the £1 million Corporate Website and Mobile Site project; and

3) detail of how any associated spend was considered to fall under the Department's delegated authority to enter into commitments and to spend within defined limits, subject to certain restrictions under arrangements established with departments on the basis of criteria set out in MPMNI.

Yours faithfully,

Robert Laverty