E-government in Malaysia: Evaluating federal goverment web site

• Main Authors: Abdul Talib, Yurita Yakimin, Sulaiman, Aryati Juliana
• Format: Monograph
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Utara Malaysia 2005
• Subjects: HD28 Management. Industrial Management; T Technology (General)
• Online Access: http://repo.uum.edu.my/7558/1/Yu.pdf; http://repo.uum.edu.my/7558/; http://lintas.uum.edu.my:8080/elmu/index.jsp?module=webopac-l&action=fullDisplayRetriever.jsp&szMaterialNo=0000243380

The E-Government initiative applies to all the services government provides to citizens and businesses.E-Government seeks to improve the access to and quality of all services, including transaction-based services, including payment or without payments, and information-based services, that are private to citizens and general to public (MDC, 1998). Citizens are at the core of the process in E-Government, thus a user-centered government web site is significantly related to the success of government online service.In this report, we review the current condition of government web site, focusing on the federal level government.Using a detailed analysis of 28 federal government web sites, and an email response test, we studied what kinds of features are available online, how E-Government sites respond to citizen request for information, and whether the web site info structure and presentation compliance with the General Circular No. 1/2000, Guidelines on Malaysia Civil Service Link (MCSL) and Government Web Sites.The research was conducted from July to November 2005.The result shows that the use of Internet to deliver government information and services has become a growth industry in Malaysia and already made headways to drive towards E-Government concept.However, still the government web sites are not making a full use of available technology.Among the significant findings of the research are: Only 32% offer services that a fully executable online and only 1 federal web site provides online payment service.Public outreach need to be improved – only 50% web sites offer dual languages and almost half of the site do not disclosed the last updated date. None of the web sites provide the chat room facility, which allows the government and citizens to interact online, and make government closer to the citizens. 73.6% of the government agency site does not respond to citizens email request.There is a need to improve the organization and structuring of the site – make a full use of hyperlink and site mapping to help the citizens navigating the sites.Hence, as the government agencies web sites are not only providing information, but also more and more services are being put online, there is a need to ensure that these official sites are well managed and well designed.It is recommended that government agencies could think of enhancing communication by utilizing applicable advance technology and Internet features.