And they say there's no money to cut taxes with out cutting essential services...

[David R]

Kiwiblog Blog Archive SPARC salaries

National revealed 55% of SPARC staff earn over $100K a year. He wondered how that compares with other government agencies. Now Bernard could have chosen a lightweight agency such as Youth Affairs to compare to, but he chose the Reserve Bank - can’t get much more critical than that. What does he find:

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s annual report shows that it has 221 staff and that 71 or 32% of those are paid more than NZ$100,000. Over 55% of Sparc staff are paid over the NZ$100,000 threshold. There are 25 staff at the RBNZ who are paid more than NZ$150,000 or 11% of staff.
That compares with Sparc’s 16% of staff who are paid more than NZ$150,000. The total remuneration cost for the RBNZ in 2006/07 was NZ$21.8 million or an average of NZ$96,642 per staff member. That’s 24% less than the average for Sparc of NZ$129,411.

So we are paying our Reserve Bank staff 24% less than our sports funding agency staff.

So a bunch of people who's job is trying to get more people to play sport are getting paid more than those responsible for the economy. Right.

Bernard also has a lot of good stuff on the $18 million SPARC is planning to spend on their websites, on how Trade Me and Staff websites have cost far less than this, and how the traffic to the SPARC sites appears to be so small it is unmeasurable.

Multiply this kind of wastage out through all the government departments, SOE’s, etc., (and add kiwirail to the bill) and watch the millions add up. It seems that this country has become so top-heavy with over-paid bureaucrats doing pointless non-essential jobs that its about to collapse.

I think its about time we had a Minister of Bureaucratic Reduction to sort this mess out and get the country running efficiently again...

[SLOTEG]

i read somewhere that under the labour government, that the size of people in government (civil service i think they call it) jobs has doubled since they have come into power. more beaurocrats

[STina]

SPARC sux when I did a international event didn't see any help from them at all neither $$ or coaching.

[chris_P]

i think you only get funding if your sport has proven results, i think thats how it works anyway. Only the top percentile get help

[Moclov]

Originally Posted by David R

I think its about time we had a Minister of Bureaucratic Reduction to sort this mess out and get the country running efficiently again...

Rodney's been trying

[fricks]

Did I read right? 18 mil on their website? I would love to see some sort breakdown of how that sort of money is being spent on the site...

[VTAKYO]

$10000 on the site, $200000pa to employ a web developer full time to maintain it.. and the remainder on SEO to try boost the traffic to it which probably involves creating several hundred fake domains that lead to it. Sort of like being Rick Rolled....

User: *enters www dot pornoarchives dot com*
Website: "Your no strangers to SPARC.... you know the rules, and so do I"
User: "What the fuck is SPARC? Some sort of sick fetish for athletes?"

[doo0T!doo0T!]

Hmmmn seems like the website expenditure is truely excessive and I'd be suprised if those at SPARC actually earned their high salary because I just cant see the value in what they do, especially as there are so many of them and especially since they are non-commercial and government funded.
But I dont know much about them and I could be completely wrong.
A big question of mine is how to they measure the payback benefit to the country for having them? They must have to justify these exorbitant expenses in payback?
The salarys are high but they're by no means excessive, its the expenses liek that website which seem totally out of line.

I have no problem with paying someone what ever it takes to get a job done well and be profitable, if they are creating more wealth for their organisation than they are costing to have then they are worth their money.
I pay one of my project managers over $150,000 a year, he earns WAY more than I earn myself but I cant do what he does and he's valuable, and more than pays for his existence in the on-going benefits of having him.
I have mates in IT earning over 100k but they do an important job in modern business and a lot of their clients know stuff all about what they do and would be screwed without them.

In NZ we tend to knock people who earn a bigger salary than ourselves, but only knock them if they don't deserve it, if they don't work hard in one way shape or form, or they haven't worked very hard to get where they are.
Hard work should be rewarded and lets face it 100,000+ salaries are getting more and more commonplace especially in positions of management that require responsibility and accountability and in areas of specialisation. When no body else can do what you do and it needs to be done you are worth the money.

[David R]

^ I think the comparison to the salaries at the Reserve Bank is a good indication that there are too many people getting paid too much money at SPARC...

[fricks]

Clarification on SPARC's expenditure | News | SPARC - ihi Aotearoa

They are stating they only roughly spent 160k on the site for 2007/2008. Seems a little more realistic. They also try and clarify a few more of there expenses in that article...

[Dionysus]

Read this on Vorb. Who cares, Governments are always going to waste money. Hell you spend money indentifying where you waste money.

[Hayce]

160k on a website? THAT website? Fuck me. side ways.

[Horny_Devil]

its the same in defence, all the people who make a differance and do all the work get paid stuff all and all those up the top get paid heaps.

a commander in the navy is on over 140,000 including there including the governments super contribution (which is 17.9% ). while the leading hands, and petty officers, who bascially hold the most responsibility are on 56-65,000 including the governments super contribution (which is 17.9% )

id hate to think what the cheif of navy is on

[David R]

Originally Posted by SPARC

There are not 47 people earning over $100,000 at SPARC. The correct number is 38 out of 94 employees for 2007/2008.

It still makes me seethe that these office-jockeys are getting paid over $100k while front-line police and fire fighters only get $50-60k....

Originally Posted by Dionysus

Read this on Vorb. Who cares, Governments are always going to waste money. Hell you spend money indentifying where you waste money.

Who ever wrote that is a knob. Its that apathetic BS 'meh what can we do but bend over and take it' attitude that is turning this country to shit. Its like saying "who cares if theres a gang problem in south auckland, its always been a shithole. I live in devonport so it doesn't bother me"...

[Esprit]

Originally Posted by David R

Who ever wrote that is a knob. Its that apathetic BS 'meh what can we do but bend over and take it' attitude that is turning this country to shit. Its like saying "who cares if theres a gang problem in south auckland, its always been a shithole. I live in devonport so it doesn't bother me"...

EXACTLY... NZers are such pussies when it comes to this. Apathy FTMFL. Was a miracle yesterday to see the truckies doing what they were doing... nice that somebody had the balls to stand up and do it!.

Government Departments are VERY bloated at the moment... there's a bunch load of jobsworths there just trying to look busy and earnign $110k for the privilege. I should know, I worked in a CRI for 5 years.... and I left because it was drowning under its own excess