If you listen to April 10th 2012 you will hear about the government’s plans for SkyCity casino to build a convention centre for Auckland.
The government announced these plans nearly a year ago but the Green Party was concerned about whether it was fair to give the contract to SkyCity. Five companies put in an offer to build a convention centre. SkyCity made the best offer. However, the Green Party said that SkyCity had special treatment. The Ministers and officials spent more time talking to SkyCity, and gave them information that the other companies didn’t have.
The Green Party asked the Auditor-General’s office to look at this to see if each company was treated equally in the bidding process. A report last week said that officials made mistakes but the result would probably be the same. The government does not want to pay for a convention centre and all the other proposals would need government money.
Now the Green Party says that the government must start again, getting offers to build a convention centre. This probably will not happen though.
SkyCity wants to increase the number of gaming machines, it wants more land and an annual payment to advertise the convention centre. Auckland people may not be happy about these conditions.
Vocabulary
• casino – place for gambling
• convention centre – building used for conferences, exhibitions etc
• Auditor-General – one job is to check that public money is used fairly and there is no corruption
• bid – offer giving the cost of plans
• bidding process – making an offer
• proposals – plans
• conditions – an ‘if’ statement e.g. we will give you a free convention centre but only if you allow us to do this and this.