SMS Fund Drive For Orphans
By Sobrina Rosli

Bandar Seri Begawan - The Pengiran Muda Mahkota Al-Muhtadee Billah Orphan's Fund through the `Short Mess age Services (SMS) Prihatin Brunei', since January 18 to February 6, 2007, has so far collected a total amount of $31,374.

The `SMS Prihatin Brunei' which was launched on January 18 with the cooperation of two local telecommunications mobile provider, DST and B-Mobile Company will end on March 11, 2007. This initiative was taken to give the public easy access and convenience to donate to the fund and thus encourage support for the less fortunate.

Funds collected would be used to finance three main projects for the orphans this year, namely establishing a foundation account for each of the children registered under the foundation, insurance for the orphans until they reach the age of 18 and as vouchers that would be given out annually to families for purchasing school items.

There are around 2,000 orphans registered with the foundation. Among the ways of raising money include through the salary deduction scheme, in which $1 will be deducted from salaries of government staff who want to donate.

Road shows are also held in various schools to encourage them to organise donation drives where a certain amount will go to the fund.

There are also the foundation's money boxes at various mosques throughout the country, at the airport's "Duty Free" and at selected shopping complexes throughout the country.

Ministry Heeds Calls For Better Website Services By Shareen Han

Bandar Seri Begawan - The Ministry of Finance will launch its new website, which is hoped to provide "better services" to the public, said a senior officer at the ministry. Its current website was last updated in June 2005.

The new website will feature more sophisticated features, with a new look and feel, said the officer who did not want to be named.

"We do 'not know yet when exactly it will be launched, but it is currently in the works by the committee," he told The Brunei Times in an interview yesterday.

Some Bruneians have called on the government authorities to update their websites on a regular basis. They have also raised concerns about the difficulty in getting useful information from the government websites, despite calls by the authorities themselves for an e-government. Regular updates of the websites have also been the subject of complaints from people interested in keeping themselves abreast with government policies and plans. Karl Verhulst, a marketing expert for leading IT management solutions provider CA, said that there should be consistency in the updating of government websites to make information sharing a relevant and useful experience for citizens.

He was speaking to the press, following an e-government conference in Brunei last month.

An official from the Information Department at the Prime Minister's Office, however, said that the department updates its website "almost every day".

"Whenever we have new information, we update the website," she said. She added that the other ministries' websites are "informative".

A quick check, however, on some of the links in the Brunei government's website, http://www.brunei.gov.bn, shows that some not functioning.

An e-government website, which was officially launched in 2001, was one of the three core strategic drives of the National IT Strategic Plan. It was aimed at serving as an important public communication and marketing tool to channel the vision, mission goals and core IT strategies of e-government and updating follow-up activities and progress of the e-government programme.

A global e-government study by America's Brown University, last year stated that Brunei was ranked 106 in the e-government ratings, compared to number 35 the previous year. -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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