Think of a number, then multiply by five to seven
The multi-year aggregate headline number is back again. The Herald tells us
John Ivil is the $300 million man – that’s the amount of money he and his team of public servants have saved the taxpayer in two years.
You might think that that’s $300 million per year, or since ‘two years’ was mentioned, $150 million per year. In fact, if you read on, the savings are totals over contracts that run for five to seven years, so we’re looking at perhaps $50 million per year. Still well worth saving, but less than the headline number suggests.
Thomas Lumley (@tslumley) is Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Auckland. His research interests include semiparametric models, survey sampling, statistical computing, foundations of statistics, and whatever methodological problems his medical collaborators come up with. He also blogs at Biased and Inefficient See all posts by Thomas Lumley »