Citizen satisfaction with federal government web sites has fallen in the US in the first quarter of this year, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) E-Government Satisfaction Index.

The report, released by the University of Michigan and e-government sponsor ForeSee Results, found that citizen satisfaction had dropped by half a point from last quarter’s all-time high to 73.6 on the ACSI’s 100-point scale.

The decline since last quarter may be attributable to high expectations for e-government in Obama’s first 100 days in office and to a fall in satisfaction with programme sites, which are sites focused on a particular federal government program rather than on an agency or department