What a mess!

Eak Raj Bastola

The websites of most of the government ministries and organs are a minefield of misinformation. Many of them have simply not been updated for months, while others have the names of the ministries wrong. This is an old problem, which sadly hasn't found any solution even in New Nepal.

  

Though the government has made repeated claims to have implemented e-governance in the country, most of the ministries have shown a total disregard for updating their websites. These government websites continue to misinform the visitors for months, yet nobody in the ministries finds even a few minutes to correct the blunders.

Take, for example, the website of the Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation. The website has the very name of the ministry wrong. Once you punch in the web address of the ministry (www.mfsc.gov.np), the website that appears says it's the homepage of the “Ministry of Forest and Soil Conversation”. Mark the last word of the name – Conversation!

One wonders that the forest ministry people don't find any difference between Conservation and Conversation. If they did, somebody would definitely find some time to correct this simple spelling error months ago. What’s more, when you dial the contact numbers given on the website, the phone rings anywhere but at the forest ministry.

The misinformation on the forest ministry's website doesn't end here. It was more than six months ago that Mohammad Wakil Musalman became the Minister for Forests and Soil Conservation. But, when you click on the "contact" link on the website, it still shows the email id of Deepak Bohara, Musalman's predecessor. Wake up guys!

What's more, Minister Musalman is unaware of these mistakes on his ministry's website. "Thanks for informing me. I will correct these mistakes tomorrow," he told TNP.

Similarly, the Ministry of Youth and Sports has no mention of the ongoing Sixth National Games. We didn't bother trying to  find other mistakes once we learnt that the ministry's website had totally boycotted the country's biggest sports event.

The website of the Ministry of Defense is another good (or bad?) example. The website doesn't tell you who the Defense Minister or the Secretary is. It also has other technical errors on its interface. The techies tell us it's a syntax error. One wonders why the website of the defense ministry is so indefensible!

Nepal Government's website (www.nepalgov.gov.np), says there is no website of the
Ministry of Federal Affairs, Parliamentary Affairs, Constituent Assembly and Culture. However, the ministry with the longest name among all Nepali ministries does have a functional website. The ministry's web address is www.mofacapac.gov.np. Thus, the Nepal Government's website itself is not updated.

If you want to know about the forthcoming high-level visits of foreign dignitaries to Nepal, the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (www.mofa.gov.np) is of no help. Log on to the website and it will tell you: “There are no High Level Visits available at the moment”. It gives the impression that nobody at the foreign ministry knows about the upcoming Nepal visit by a Chinese delegation led by the Chinese Deputy Speaker next month.  Joint Spokesperson for foreign ministry, Thirtha Wagle informed that the ministry used to update its website regularly before the visit by the Chinese PM to Nepal. "We have not updated the website for some time now because we plan to redesign it soon," he said.

Is it just an excuse? Or the visit by Chinese Deputy Speaker doesn't fall under the "High Level" category?

The Ministry of Energy has kept a notice about former energy minister Bharat Mohan Adhikari’s speech to the Legislative Parliament. As the Deputy Prime-minister and Energy Minister though the country has seen two new energy ministers after Adhikari. Post Bahadur Bogati is the current Energy Minister while his predecessor was Gokarna Bista. Similarly, the websites of the Ministry of Education and other ministries have not been updated for the past few MONTHS. The Ministry of Commerce and Supplies, too, needs a repair. When you surf the ministry's website (www.moics.gov.np ) a notice pops up which says “The site is under maintenance”. But the question is: how long does it take to maintain a website? A few days, a month or a year?