For a centralised bin centre that cost $470,000 to build (plus another $410,000 in consultancy fees), it sure doesn’t look like much.
News of the controversial, expensive dumpster station arose in the recently published annual auditing report by the Auditor-General’s Office as one of the many faults found in multiple ministries, statutory boards and associated government agencies.
One of the National Arts Council’s highlighted issue was the fact that the consultation fee of $410,000 had been “exceptionally high” — 87.2 percent of the total construction cost ($470,000) itself. Meaning the total cost to build the rubbish bin shelter serving the Asian Civilisations Museum, the Old Parliament House and the Victoria Theatre and Victoria Concert Hall was a whopping $880,000. Nearly a million dollars, mind you.
Though the government tried their darnedest to explain just how complex and complicated the whole project was, The Online Citizen‘s investigations held a different tune. They found out the new bin centre “had the same design to match the Asian Civilisations Museum and just got upgraded to cover more area so that the bins can be hidden from sight.”
With such a colossal price tag, somebody had the brilliant idea to set up a Twitter account for the bin centre. Hey, it had to happen eventually.
Why, you ask? The question should be “why the hell not?” — nearly a million dollars spent and the powers that be didn’t even think of setting up the world’s first tweeting bin centre. No NAC arts grant needed for this parody account; they’re doing all the hard work (mainly trash-talking) for free.
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