Vote 10 - Office of Public Works - OPW

58 grand on a bathroom?

johnfás wrote:

58 grand on a bathroom?

That's no pleb lumpen troll Dublin Arse sitting on that porcelain - that's good solid Kingdom Arsebone sitting on that China, me ould plate.

And for the King hisself

RTE

Further Reading
http://www.munster-express.ie/opinion/to-be-honest/the-cost-of-berties-new-office-cannot-be-justified/
http://www.politics.ie/current-affairs/31610-berties-new-office-costs-220k.html
http://www.politics.ie/current-affairs/33362-aherns-giant-office-shower-paid-us-what-recession.html
OPW defend costs of Ahern office - Irish Times

I struggle to even comprehend how one could in fact spend that much money on a bathroom. Was each tile from a different country of the world, a toilet seat of ebony and handle of ivory, taps of platinum I presume and of course a diamond encrusted mirror.

johnfás wrote:

I struggle to even comprehend how one could in fact spend that much money on a bathroom. Was each tile from a different country of the world, a toilet seat of ebony and handle of ivory, taps of platinum I presume and of course a diamond encrusted mirror.

I'd say there's a lot of bloody period stuff in there and you'd also have to assume that everything was meticulously recycled except of course the Waterford Crystal fittings.

Even in period houses one generally tends to find modern lavatory facilities.

And finally .. The Office of Public Wrobbers

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/how-opw-squandered-your-money-255554.html

This is totting up to quite a bit, Auditor.

cactus flower wrote:

This is totting up to quite a bit, Auditor.

Projects over budget and over deadline - we are all familiar with them. But 3.8 million to 26 million on the Courthouse in Cork....

Bet they have nice lavatory facilities.

johnfás wrote:

Bet they have nice lavatory facilities.

Of this variety no doubt...

I once walked past a skip which had a whole bathroom suite just like that sitting in it.

Part of the problem with the OPW is that the different divisions like to assert their independence of each other by purchasing incompatible IT systems. They then negotiate contracts that do not allow them access to their own data except through the systems they have bought. The result is a more than usually extreme version of "data silos", where the organisation cannot cross-check information in any simple way, because the database that holds the information on building maintenance is not only separate from the database that holds the information on the rental of the same building, but is actually different and incompatible software, and the building has an entirely different unique ID in each database and division. Their IT manager (who is more recent than the damning committee report) estimates that there are at least 17 different incompatible data systems in place within the OPW - frankly, it's a wonder that anything happens at all....

"Data silos" eh ? The Cult of Personality rules in there so ? Do you have any published information on that crazy phenomenon ibis ?