Archive Since 1991 Although we are not privy to the proceedings of the National Information, Communication and Technology Cabinet Committee meeting held last week, the very fact that the Prime Minister issued a similar instruction when chairing the meeting can lead to only one conclusion - that not all heeded the order. The Chief Secretary to the Government admitted as much on Sunday when he said that while most of them had updated their websites, "there is still room for improvement".
This is a most regrettable state of affairs. It is unacceptable in this age of e-government for official websites to contain outdated information and resources. Those who surf the Internet to search for the latest developments know how frustrating it can be to find old and irrelevant facts and figures.
That the Prime Minister has to highlight yet again what should have been a scheduled, standard web management procedure shows there is still a long way to go before a culture of e-governance can be fully developed.
In fact, this failure to take good care of websites seems to be an extension of the bad practices found in the maintenance of buildings that are allowed to fall into disrepair after their colourful official openings, or programmes abandoned when the fanfare of their launches subsides.
Government departments and agencies that have not looked after their websites properly must turn their immediate attention to taking corrective measures. This means not only focusing on updating information but also to an overhaul of other areas of inadequacy such as bad navigation, poor design, and slow responses to e-mail enquiries.
The Prime Minister has also rightly reminded them to put in place plans to guard against attacks by hackers. The spate of defacements of websites over the last few months and the development of more sophisticated hacking methods make it imperative for government departments and agencies to take measures to prevent unauthorised access to their networks. They also need to maintain the integrity of their websites against attacks by viruses and worms.
Since there will be the inevitable laggards, it is incumbent upon the Manpower and Management Planning Unit in the Prime Minister's Department to monitor the websites. At a time when not only information but also more and more services are being put online, there is a need to ensure that these official sites are well managed and well designed.
If the Internet-literate public have great difficulty in getting access to vital information and services, they may well be discouraged from using the web-based channels of e-government.
Quelle: New Straits Times, 04.04.2005
