A $30 million contract with Assurity Consulting is an example of a growing number of opportunities for New Zealand companies in the wider sector, says Inland Revenue Minister Todd McClay.
“Where work can be done in New Zealand it should be,” he says.
McClay was speaking at a function to note the appointment of Assurity for Inland Revenue testing services. The contract is for an initial term of three years.
Assurity is one of a panel of four for IRD testing services. It has done earlier work for the department on student loans.
There was a wide array of bidders for the contract, says CTO Myles Ward. He says Assurity had the right expertise, ‘was a good fit for us’ and met investment requirements and approaches to testing.
The minister says there will be growing opportunities for New Zealand companies in government transformation projects. “There is a lot of work to be done. We need to reach out to business and to IT companies to ask ‘what do you want and expect?’.”
Assurity chief executive Garth Hamilton says the company has the resources to meet IRD’s requirements, where it will be working with the department’s internal testing team.
“Given time, we can scale if necessary.”
Assurity has been running a successful graduate programme. It has hired 64 staff over the past five years, of which it retains 40, given the propensity of young people to do their OE.
Hamilton says the company interviewed 200 before deciding on its latest graduate intake of 10. In June, it will do it all again.
Assurity employs 185 people – 120 in Wellington – and has other offices in Auckland and Christchurch.