The State Council released a circular on the results of a nationwide inspection of government websites carried out in the second quarter of 2018.

As of June 1, 22,206 government websites were in operation.

The State Council General Office carried out a random inspection of 441 websites, of which 96 percent were qualified.

Government websites from 13 province-level regions such as Beijing, Tianjin, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang were rated as 100 percent qualified over four consecutive quarters.

Besides the inspection carried out by the State Council General Office, sub-inspections were also delivered by regional governments and State Council departments to evaluate the performance of websites under their respective administrations.

Receiving random local inspections were 12,286 websites at the regional and departmental level, accounting for 55 percent of all government websites. The overall performance was rated as 97 percent qualified.

In the second quarter, 300 officials were held accountable for poor performance of the unqualified websites.

Several issues were unveiled during the inspection of unqualified websites, including inefficient management, poor online service, malfunction in the error report system designed for users, and weak operation and management for mobile government service applications. They were urged to carry out effective overhaul measures.

In addition, the circular required related regions and departments to enhance efforts in regular supervision of government websites, raise service standards and reinforce government service through better management of mobile service platforms.

The deadline for submitting reports on the inspection results of the third quarter is Sept 20.