The man who oversaw the Bureau of Meteorology's highly contentious $96.5million website makeover has announced he will step down.
Peter Stone will leave the Bureau next month after almost a decade with the national forecaster, Crikey reports.
The Bureau confirmed Dr Stone, the chief customer officer and group executive of business solutions, had 'made the decision to retire'.
He briefly acted as the Bureau's chief executive in October last year, when the agency first launched its remodelled website.
The new design triggered a massive wave of criticism from Aussies who claimed the layout, especially of the rain radar, was difficult to navigate.
The previous rain radar's colour scheme was brought back and Dr Stone promised further website improvements were on the way.
'We will continue to assess options for further updates and improvements at the same time as pushing on with our efforts to help the community become more familiar with the website,' Dr Stone said at the time.
'So, more changes are in the pipeline.'
Peter Stone (above) will retire from the Bureau of Meteorology by the end of June
Stuart Minchin (above) will take over from Dr Stone in November
The Bureau initially said the new website cost $4.1million but later revealed the real cost was closer to $96.5million.
It attributed the inflated cost to upgrading and testing its back-end systems.
Most of the money went toward a $78million contract with Accenture that was originally slated at $31million but grew over nine extensions.
The BOM's chief information and technology officer, Nichole Brinsmead, said the extent of the upgrades weren't initially understood.
'I do take umbrage, to some degree, in that I don't think these contracts were as badly managed as you make out,' she told a Senates hearing in 2025.
Stuart Minchinm took over the chief executive position in November.