By Kate Hanaghan, 4 April 2002 16:25
NEWS The government's online strategy is under threat because individual departments have no idea how to get citizens to use their websites. The National Audit Office (NAO) has reviewed e-government achievements to date and has identified some serious shortcomings that must be resolved to ensure the success of its online strategy. The NAO is calling for the Office of the e-envoy to advise departments on how to encourage people to get online. So far, visitor numbers to ukonline.go.uk have been very disappointing, it claimed. Although government departments do have their e-strategies in place, the NAO report, entitled 'Better Public Services Through E-government', claims the government has a cultural issue with IT. The ability of civil servants to use IT needs significant development, the report says. In addition, IT systems need updating and departments need to work more closely with partners to deliver integrated IT services to citizens. The recommendations come just a month after the office of the e-envoy boasted that within a year UK Online will be as popular as FriendsReunited. However, even if more people do decide to use the online services, there is a limit to what they would actually be able to do. Fifty-two per cent of government services are online, compared with 59 per cent in Germany. However, only a small number of interactive services can currently be accessed. The office of the e-envoy has already admitted that it does not know what the killer app for UK Online will be. The government's target is to get all of its services online by 2005.
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