NZTA Spends $5.2m On App That Doesn’t Work

The Taxpayers’ Union says that a digital licence app being developed by the NZTA has cost over $5m of taxpayers’ money but cannot be used for ID or for driving purposes. It is asking the minister to put a stop to any further development of this app which it describes as a “vanity project”.

In an Official Information Act request, the Taxpayers’ Union discovered that Waka Kotahi has spent $5,186,358 over the past 24 months developing an app that is not yet in a usable state for New Zealanders. The app is designed to hold driver licence details but cannot yet be used for ID or for driving.

Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, commented: “This is beyond wasteful. While our roads have been looking like Swiss cheese, NZTA has instead been pouring millions into stupid projects like this app and their Road to Zero speed limit reduction propaganda campaign.

“The most useful part of this app is the part showing your driver licence details but it isn’t even allowed to be used as ID or to drive with. You couldn’t make this up. Working with the Ministry of Transport to get the digital licence to be accepted is good, but this work should have been completed before pumping millions into the app and hoping it would be useable.

“Taxpayers have already spent too much money on this app. Minister Simeon Brown must put a stop work notice in place on this project and all other Ministers should be checking with their own departments to ensure similar vanity projects are not occurring.”