The Minister of Youth and ICT, Jean Philbert Nsengimana, has directed public institutions, including districts, to ease access to information by regularly updating their websites.Public institutions and districts created websites but it has been noticed that despite employing public relations officers and IT personnel, many institutions take long to update their websites, the minister observed.Speaking during a meeting that brought together representatives of various private and public institutions, Nsengimana gave a deadline of up to the first week of January, 2013 for institutions to have come up with clear mechanisms to ensure that their websites are uploaded regularly.The meeting aimed at discussing the new initiative that will next year see the Ministry of Youth and ICT tracking the progress registered with regard to the use of ICT in service delivery.“When districts or public institutions do not update the public concerning through such platforms as websites, it keeps the population in the dark,” Nsengimana said.He noted that not uploading websites is also another factor that locks out the young generation to utilise opportunities that would enable them to contribute to development programmes.During the meeting, participants had an interactive discussion about various issues which also included the reasons and failure for websites to be uploaded.Among others, it was noted that there was need for better coordination between public relations officers, IT managers and officials with the information area.In some institutions with no permanent employees to take on the responsibilities, it was suggested part-time employees, especially fresh IT graduates, be given a chance to do the job.However, this raised mixed reactions with some participants saying that procurement procedures had always frustrated such efforts.Nsengimana said that proposals should be forwarded to identify who can take up the task as well as proposed payment mechanisms.
