NAO: Government failed to measure website value
Summary: The government spent £90m on its three main websites over three years, but failed to measure the benefits of its online services, according to the National Audit Office
The government has failed to measure the benefits of its online sites and services, making it impossible to judge whether they offer value for money, according to a report by the UK national spending watchdog.
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Government spent £90.3m on its two main web domains, Directgov and Business.gov, and the online identity assurance service, Government Gateway, over the past three years without sufficient information about the returns on its investment, the report by the National Audit Office (NAO) said on Friday.
"It is a good thing that people visited the two main government websites some 200 million times last year. However, it's still unclear what benefits have been achieved and at what cost. We cannot conclude, therefore, that the taxpayer is securing value for money," Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, said in a statement.
For more on this ZDNet UK-selected story, see Has £90m been wasted on government websites? Nobody knows... on silicon.com.
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