Government websites improve information disclosure

Government websites improved information disclosure on significant policies in the fourth quarter last year, according to a notice released by the State Council on Tuesday.

This was part of the results of a recent checkup on government websites nationwide by the office for governmental information disclosure under the State Council General Office.

The authorities sampled 7,535 government websites run by local governments and 71 State Council departments, accounting for 16 percent of the country’s government websites. Results showed 91 percent of these sites met basic standards for information disclosure, up by 9.5 percentage points from the first quarter of 2016.

Results also showed that 97.2 percent of websites run by departments under the State Council were qualified to disclose information, as were 90.8 percent of local governments’ websites. And 97 percent of unqualified sites found in the checkup for last year’s third quarter were rectified or shut down, the notice said.

Among websites run by local governments above county level and State Council departments, 87 percent set up special columns on their homepages to release policies and information issued by the State Council. And 78 percent of them were found to publish the State Council’s crucial information within 24 hours after the first release by the central government.

By the end of 2016, 93 percent of these websites opened a channel on their homepages for internet users to file mistakes they’ve found on these sites. They received 2,399 such messages in the fourth quarter last year.