A new report from the General Accounting Office finds lodging an online complaint against a federal agency is relatively easy for the average Web-surfing citizen.
While this may be good news for e-government enthusiasts, the disparities in procedures used for filing complaints online underscore the general lack of governmentwide Internet standards. That issue could prove troublesome as more federal services go online.
The report focused solely on the ability to register comments with agencies and not on the quality, accessibility or content of the sites studied.
Among the 32 agencies that handle 90 percent of public-government interaction, only the Immigration and Naturalization Service has no mechanism for public comment available on its Web page. Seven others provide only a link to the webmaster, an individual typically responsible for technical issues, not agency programs or processes.
The study showed that three agency sites-the Food and Nutrition Service, the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service and the INS-contain neither a mailing address nor phone number for program contacts.
GAO conducted the analysis at the request of Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, D-S.C., the ranking minority member of the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon.
GAO said the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), which regulates more than 15,000 products, has created an intricate network to receive, confirm and follow up on product complaints. In the first half of this year, CPSC received virtually equal amounts of Internet and telephone reports, a sign that the commission has made a successful foray onto the Web.
GAO also addressed Consumer.gov, the electronic gateway to various agency sites operated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and FirstGov, the proposed central Web portal for the entire federal government, as they relate to users' ability to record complaints.
The FTC organized the content of Consumer.gov by subject, thereby allowing users not versed in the jurisdictions of various federal agencies to more easily register their concerns and find the information they are looking for. The site received a Hammer Award from the National Partnership for Reinventing Government in 1999 for its accessibility.
General Services Administration programmers working on FirstGov, due to debut this fall, assured GAO that the final version of the site will include direct links to complaint forms for each agency.
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