Inspection of websites released for third quarter

A State Council notice, released on Thursday, showed that 97 percent of official websites of provincial governments and ministerial departments met qualification standards in the third quarter, 3 percentage points higher than the previous quarter. As of September, 29,431 government websites were in operation. The General Office of the State Council conducted a random inspection of 500 websites of provincial governments and ministerial departments. More than 14,000 valid messages from netizens had been submitted to point out errors appearing on government websites in the third quarter, and 98 percent had been answered. During the third quarter, a number of people in charge were punished for neglect of duties in running the websites. Some other problems were also found in the process, such as unregulated titles, absence of key portals and mistakes induced by substandard daily operations. Based on the outcome of the inspections, the notice urged officials to better operate and manage government websites to offer people efficient and convenient access to egovernment. Regions and departments are expected to report their rectifications of substandard operations of the websites to the General Office of the State Council before the deadline of Dec 20, the notice said.