March 4th, 2010

New governmental portal costing billions taken offline after a few hours

crashed.jpgHungary’s online public administration service Ügyfélkapu (“Client Gateway”, which currently has 850,000 registered users) returned to its old version after a brand-spanking new version launched on March 1 experienced many errors following its launch. According to hirextra.hu, no date has been set for the relaunch of the new version.

Service operator Kopint-Datorg said the cause of the error was a piece of faulty software, which we guess someone forgot to test.

Opposition party Fidesz, wasting no time to score some quick political points, reacted to the news by saying that what happened is symbolic of the government’s IT communications activities: “developments for billions [of forints], then total non-functionality.” We’re not IT experts, but if the government plans to continue their campaign of progress for the future, it would help if they were actually able to do it with something as relatively simple as a glorified website redesign.

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Comments [4]
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  1. Hugica says:

    So? Who gives a crap about something like this?

  2. Erik says:

    Why isn’t this interesting/notable?

  3. AnArChist says:

    ” We’re not IT experts, but if the government plans to continue their campaign of progress for the future, it would help if they were actually able to do it with something as relatively simple as a glorified website redesign.
    For once I am speechless! I have typed the words
    “Useless” and “Worthless” about politicians and government, so many times, they have lost their effect.

  4. Miguel Torres says:

    “a piece of faulty software” is a euphemism for a
    whole damn system that was incompetently
    implemented. It would be interesting to know which
    firm got the contract and how politically connected
    are their shareholders. Yes, I’m a cynic.