NAO report finds flaws in e-gov plans
The National Audit Office has issued a damning report into the government's attempts to get its departments online by 2005, urging it to move from campaigning and into implementation.
In its second audit of the government’s online presence, the NAO concluded ‘real issues’ still needed to be addressed.
The report says there is no methodology to gauge financial cost and benefits of online services.
Neither is there any central data on website usage – a practice proposed by the Public Accounts Committee two years ago.
The e-envoy’s office, said the report, ‘has relatively little up-to-date and good quality information about the development of central government on the web’.
The NAO also brought into question the usefulness of most government search engines.
NAO chief,Sir John Bourn, said there were ‘weaknesses in information across government on the usage of web sites, performance indicators to measure progress and methodologies to assess the value added by e-government provision.’
The report recommended the e-envoy review its strategy to incorporate PAC recommendations, in particular the establishment of an information base.