The Bureau for Public Service Reforms (BPSR) just ranked the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC)’s website as the overall best amongst 220 government websites, but its own website is not working.

ICPC announced its award via social media on Wednesday.

“The website of ICPC http://icpc.gov.ng has been adjudged the best in a Federal Government scorecard for ranking websites of 220 ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs),” ICPC’s statement read in part.

ICPC Website Ranked as Overall Best Amongst 220 MDAs

The website of ICPC https://t.co/R52ZNBOjyc has been adjudged the best in a Federal Government scorecard for ranking websites of 220 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). pic.twitter.com/c5XmIpQBMN

— ICPC Nigeria (@icpcnigeria) November 16, 2022

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Dasuki Arabi, BPSR’s director general, said that the primary objectives of the scorecard ranking were to “strengthen MDAs capacity for transparency, accountability and good governance by providing unrestricted access to public information”.

“The BPSR, in collaboration with an Inter-Ministerial Task Team (IMTT), whose membership were drawn from key government agencies like Galaxy Backbone, Federal Ministry of Justice, Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA), National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), revealed the findings of an exercise, which critically examined the MDAs’ websites in Nigeria,” he said on Tuesday.

The results of 2021/22 Federal Government scorecard for Ranking websites of Ministries,Departments And Agencies was presented to the public by @OSGFNG01 Boss Mustapha

— Reforms Bureau NGR #Reformerng (@bpsr_ng) November 16, 2022

When FIJ checked the BPSR website for more information, it was down.

“This page isn’t working at the moment. bpsr.gov.ng can’t currently handle this request,” the website read.

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BPSR’s inaccessible website is a symptom of a very frequent internet sickness many ministries and parastatals suffer. The public often faces numerous challenges accessing government websites.

As many MDAs struggle with their websites, information-dependent professionals, such as journalists, often have difficult days searching for public data.

Dead email addresses, inoperable phone numbers, and outdated names of officials are but a few obstacles on government-run websites.

The website of the Nigeria Police Force was “not working” in the first week of October. Other MDAs barely post updates on their websites, while several state government websites have been abandoned. For instance, Adamawa State’s website was not running at the time of this report.

Although the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2011 seeks to change the manner in which public records and information are managed, these records are often unavailable on government websites.