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New travel reporting website six months overdue

Minister Louis Sebert said last November in the legislative assembly that a new website on ministerial travel expenses and meetings would be up and running within the next month, but it is still in the works. NNSL file photo
Minister Louis Sebert said last November in the legislative assembly that a new website on ministerial travel expenses and meetings would be up and running within the next month, but it is still in the works. NNSL file photo

A promise from the NWT's transparency minister to provide more information on cabinet travel expenses remains unfulfilled nearly six months after the website containing the information was supposed to go live.

SA国际影视传媒淲e began to kind of realize it was maybe more work to be done than we prepared for, particularly around the technological side of things,SA国际影视传媒 said Andrew Livingstone, cabinet communications spokesperson.

Last November, Minister Louis Sebert delivered a speech in the legislative assembly about how the GNWT is improving government transparency.

In addition to a new mandate reporting website and a public board appointments website, Sebert said a new-and-improved platform for reporting on ministersSA国际影视传媒 travel expenses and meetings was expected to be up and running SA国际影视传媒渨ithin the month.SA国际影视传媒

Livingstone said the GNWT is hopeful the project will now be complete by the end of May, giving residents more information on ministers' expenses.

MinistersSA国际影视传媒 travel expense reports are currently published quarterly in PDF format on the Department of Executive website.

The new version is expected to be more user-friendly, Livingstone said, and will contain a database that is searchable by minister, department, trip, date and so on.

It will be updated monthly and allow residents to see a line-by-line breakdown of travel expenses such as hotels, accommodations and meals, he said, whereas the current travel reports provide only the total cost on trips.

SA国际影视传媒淭hereSA国际影视传媒檚 no real breakdown of where that total comes from,SA国际影视传媒 Livingstone said. SA国际影视传媒淪o instead of report publishing, weSA国际影视传媒檙e essentially (going to be) publishing raw data.SA国际影视传媒

The public will also be able to see which ministers attended what meetings, what the meeting was about and who the meeting was with, Livingstone said.

In the meantime, quarterly reports have been slow to go up on the current website.

The ministerial travel report for October to December 2016 was published last week, although the website shows the last quarter report of the year is usually published by December.

Livingstone said an error in the report led to the delay in publishing it.

The first quarter report for this year, which is usually published in March, according to the website, is not available.

Livingstone said it will be available once the new site is up and running.

This is the first time the GNWT has created a website like this, Livingstone added, and it has come with its challenges including technological hurdles, staff training, as well as capacity issues.

SA国际影视传媒淭hereSA国际影视传媒檚 no staff specifically dedicated to the website project,SA国际影视传媒 Livingstone said, SA国际影视传媒渟o thereSA国际影视传媒檚 a number of us that are working collaboratively to get the website up.SA国际影视传媒

He said all those factors have led to the website not being ready for the original deadline last year.

Regular MLAs arenSA国际影视传媒檛 concerned about the delay.

Some say they prefer the new travel reporting website is done correctly than quickly.

SA国际影视传媒淚f ISA国际影视传媒檝e learned one thing about government, itSA国际影视传媒檚 that things move slowly,SA国际影视传媒 said Hay River North MLA R.J. Simpson. SA国际影视传媒淚 believe that weSA国际影视传媒檙e moving in the right direction with this, so ISA国际影视传媒檇 rather them do it properly and get it released than just put something out there quickly.SA国际影视传媒

He said the changes will not just benefit the public but will help MLAs do their jobs better, too.

Kam Lake MLA Kieron Testart agreed with Simpson.

SA国际影视传媒淭ransparency was a major issue of the election,SA国际影视传媒 he said. SA国际影视传媒淚 think we all want change quickly, especially after an election, and it takes time to get to where we need to be.SA国际影视传媒

Testart said heSA国际影视传媒檚 confident those systems will be in place SA国际影视传媒渁s soon as they can be.SA国际影视传媒

SA国际影视传媒淲e need to do it right, we need to do it accurately, and sometimes that does take time,SA国际影视传媒 Testart said.





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