It seems to me that some of our government departments seem to believe they’ve found an easy way to answer calls for urgent modernisation. Why introduce tough administrative reforms, establish stringent performance criteria and reorganise organisations applying carefully thought out anti-corruption measures when you can just punch in a few keys and get yourself a Facebook and Twitter id?
I’m all for technology—nobody can deny the usefulness of easy access to information. But, when government departments expect to be complimented after spending taxpayers’ money on advertising their ‘strides’ into the future just because they’ve got a Facebook account, I’m not willing to be charitable.
Yet such grandstanding was in frequent evidence in the run up to the Commonwealth Games, with several departments—including the fire authority and traffic police—proclaiming proudly that they’re net savvy. If only this progress up the tech ramp up could be accompanied by some real modernisation…