In fact, in some cases, the sites were last updated in 2005.
In his New Year's titah, His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam urged those employed in the civil service to improve the quality of public services.
And the maintenance of updated websites appears to be one of the public's growing clamour, based on interviews conducted by The Brunei Times with several students. With all the talk and focus on implementing an e-government, it seems this message has not been received by several ministries.
Aidah Waqilah Sahari, 22, said their teachers usually assign them projects about government ministries.
"We were asked to search for some information, but the website has not been updated so it's really hard for us to get some useful information about the department," she said.
She added that she and her classmates sometimes have to call up the department concerned to get more information.
Khairil Hanafiah, 23, pointed out that some government agencies do not even have their own official website.
Syafiqah Adirah Budin, 19, said that learning about the government makes her proud to be a Bruneian.
"We are the new generation that will be taking their place in the future. But outdated websites make our school work harder."
Noriah Sa'adi, 25, who studies in a technical school, said their teachers always assign them to do some research about the responsibility and the mission of government departments, but students cannot get updated, detailed information from the websites.
To make matters worse, said Suzee Ayuni Latiff, 24, sometimes the information is already outdated. She also called attention to the fact that the design in some sites was not attractive enough. She said authorities must take responsibility for this.
"Sometimes the links don't work at all. The government must do something about this because foreign students will also be using these websites," said Azalina Kasim, 26.
According to Hjh Norwani of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, each department has the responsibility of updating its own website.
In the Ministry's case, she said, it has been updating its website because it knows the needs of the public.
"For us, this is one way of helping promote our Ministry. The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports deals with youth and society, so we hope that through our website at least we can help them upgrade their knowledge and get more information about our work," she said.
Autor(en)/Author(s): Norhayati Zalani
Quelle/Source: The Brunei Times, 05.01.2007
