FirstGov.gov was praised for being "clear, organized and user-friendly," and for displaying a "stunning" number of online services for citizens, businesses, federal employees and governments. "We can tell that the government is willing to speak to and help its citizens, which is one telling reason why the FirstGov portal is ranked as the number one site for the year," the report said.
"This report is a testament to all the hard work that the FirstGov.gov team and the GSA Office of Citizen Services and Communications have done in making FirstGov.gov a world-class site," said GSA Administrator Lurita Doan. "I urge all citizens to log on to FirstGov.gov today and experience for themselves how easy it can be to find the helpful, official government information they need online."
FirstGov.gov is an integral part of USA Services, one of the Presidential E-Gov initiatives. USA Services delivers information and services to citizens through multiple channels. This includes the Internet, email, telephone, and publication distribution. Last year, USA Services reported 230 million public contacts, of which 8.6 million were through 1-800-FED-INFO (for telephone and e-mail), 8.2 million publications were distributed through the Federal Citizen Information Center (FCIC) in Pueblo, Colorado, and 179 million were FirstGov.gov. Citizens can access the Spanish language version of FirstGov at www.espanol.gov.
GSA is a centralized, federal procurement, property management, policy development and information provision agency, created by Congress to improve government efficiency and help federal agencies better serve the public. In this role, GSA acquires products and services on behalf of federal agencies; plays a key role in developing and implementing government-wide policies; provides services and solutions for the office operations of more than one million federal workers; and encourages a citizen-centric relationship with government by providing a single "point of entry" to the information and services citizens need in a timeframe they can appreciate. This allows citizens to receive accurate, timely and consistent answers and information, and helps federal agencies better respond to citizen inquiries.
Quelle/Source: PR Newswire, 16.08.2006
