Tenderwatch

Whale Oil has a useful new feature called Tenderwatch.

His latest find is one from SPARC asking people to tender to develop a report on the value of sport and recreation.

Whale believes that SPARC should be able to produce such a report themselves.

I wonder why we need such a report at all.

I mean we all know what it will say. That if people play more sport and exercise more, this will be good for the NZ economy due to spending on sporting events, reduced health costs etc etc.

Every sector in NZ commissions reports like that to “prove” how valuable they are.

Now I don’t mind private bodies commissioning such research. For example it is quite appropriate for the NZRFU to commission research on the economic value of hosting the Rugby World Cup, to persuade the Government to contribute towards it.

But SPARC is a government agency. It appears to be using taxpayer money to commission research to say the Government should give even more money to SPARC. We may be paying to lobby ourselves.