Government websites are badly out of date

DESPITE much talk in Government about the need for wider use of information technology and ‘e-governance’, Government ministries’ presence on the Internet remains dismal.

The Namibian conducted a mini-investigation into the way ministries use their websites to provide information to the public.
The investigation showed that many ministry websites are either hard to find or are outdated, with misleading or wrong information.
The Namibian was mostly looking for basic information such as what the ministry does, how it is structured and who the main officials are.
The website of the Ministry of Trade and Industry still has Immanuel Ngatjizeko as Minister, Bernard Esau as Deputy Minister and Andrew Ndishishi as Permanent Secretary. The site has evidently been hacked by ‘United Albania Hackers’, who left their calling card just under the masthead.
Ndishishi left the ministry in 2007 to head the Agriculture Ministry; Ngatjizeko left in 2008 to head the Labour Ministry; and Esau became Deputy Minister of Mines and Energy in 2008 and was promoted to Fisheries Minister in March this year.
Although Minister Ngatjizeko is correctly listed on the Labour Ministry site, there is no mention of who the permanent secretary is.
Youth Minister Kazenambo Kazenambo is still listed as Deputy Minister of Local Government, while he was promoted to Minister of Youth, National Service, Sport and Culture in March this year.
The Home Affairs website still lists Samuel Goagoseb as Permanent Secretary, although he moved to Safety and Security a month ago.
The website of the Ministry of Safety and Security still lists Peter Mwatile as permanent secretary and Dr Nickey Iyambo as Minister, although Mwatile has moved to Labour and Iyambo is now the Veterans’ Affairs Minister.
The Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources’ site does not mention who the Minister or the PS is, but it is informative on the ministry’s programmes and projects.
The Education Ministry website still lists Nangolo Mbumba as Minister and Becky Ndjoze-Ojo as Deputy Minister, although both left the ministry in March. The permanent secretary’s name could not be found.
The Ministry of Finance has updated the names of its Minister and Deputy Minister on its site, but the PS remains vacant although a PS was appointed a month ago.
Foreign Affairs has a picture of Minister Utoni Nujoma on the home page and that is it. The rest is confusing Government international relations.
Helmut Angula is still on the home page of the Ministry of Works. The organogram shows that Angula and Paul Smit are still Minister and Deputy Minister respectively although both left the public service four months ago.
The Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare does not give the names of its top structure on its site, but there is an e-mail address for Permanent Secretary Sirka Ausiku, although her name is not mentioned.
The ministries of Environment, Mines, Agriculture and the National Planning Commission all passed with flying colours since basic information on the sites was available, accurate and easy to find.
Had Deputy Information and Communication Technology Minister Stanley Simataa not launched the ICT ministry’s site recently, it would have been difficult to find it, as an Internet search could not locate it. The site is up to date, though.
The site of the Office of the Prime Minister is also up to date but the name of the PS could not be found.
The Namibian Medicines Register is all that appears on the Ministry of Health’s site.
The Ministry of Defence site never opened despite waiting half an hour for it to load.
The sites of the ministries of Justice, Lands and Youth could not be found.
Besides the Ministry of Information, all ministry sites could be found relatively quickly (less than five minutes) by means of an Internet search engine.