Team Herald

MARGAO: Goa Electronics Ltd (GEL) has been appointed as the State Designated Agency (SDA) for all website related activities such as design, development, hosting, security audit, STQC audit, GIGW compliance, maintenance and monitoring of State government websites for the next two years.

A circular issued earlier this month makes GEL responsible for empanelling agencies to develop and maintain government websites. This was earlier handled by the Department of Information Technology (DoIT). All State departments and corporations will now have to approach GEL for hiring a website development firm.

GEL will charge 5% of the project/website cost for the service to various government departments. The cost towards design, development and maintenance of the websites, SSL certificate purchase, security audit and additional 5% of the service charge of the total cost of the website will have to be paid to the SDA and shall be borne by the intending department/corporation concerned.

Sources at DoIT revealed that this model is being adopted, because, earlier firms would develop the website for the government department but then not maintain the website. They hope that GEL, with its technical expertise, would ensure that websites are maintained and updated regularly.

The order comes after a considerable delay in empanelling website development firms. 

The previous list of empanelled vendors expired in 2015 and since then, the government departments have not been able to set up a new website or upgrade the existing ones. Even the website developers were eagerly waiting for this decision. One vendor informed that for the last three years, they were not getting any business from the government. “I hope the empanelment criteria give small vendors and start-ups a chance to compete for the projects,” he said.