The spanking new version of the Citizens’ Portal (Portal do Cidadão) was launched yesterday morning amid much press attention but has failed to function.
In the first 24 hours operation the service was taken offline, then was activated again only to be pulled yet again due to ‘operational problems.’
The remodeled site was meant to be more efficient with the removal of some obsolescent components which had been there for 11 years but less than 24 hours later, anyone trying to use this essential government service this morning was confronted by a blank screen or a blue screen with a message in English which read that the ‘service is temporarily unavailable.’
At around midday an unusable page was displayed, and after a while the site had limped back into service. But only for a few minutes as at 1pm the Citizens’ Portal website reverted to a blue screen.
No government comment has yet been received.
This is the second recent launch of a government website that has failed to impress, or even work, as last summer the Citius site launched with great fanfare by the Ministry of Justice did not function properly for six weeks adding to the appalling wait that citizens must endure before they can access justice in the country's courts.
