Do more to promote govt initiatives - Chief of Staff to PROs of MDAs
The Chief of Staff, Mrs Akosua Frema Osei-Opare has charged the Public Relations Officers (PROs) of the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to do a better job of making the public aware of the initiatives the government has used to manage the economy during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to her, effective dissemination of the achievements of the President Akufo-Addo administration and the State-Owned Enterprise (SOEs) by the PROs will give hope to Ghanaian citizens about the efforts the government is making to improve the quality of their lives.
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In a keynote address at the 2nd Annual Information Services Department (ISD)/ State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA) PROs Summit, Mrs Osei-Opare said the government has already resolved a lot of challenges that the country was facing under the previous administration.
"As you work in your various organisations daily, it must be clear to you that the Ministries, Departments and Agencies under the Akufo-Addo administration have done a lot in resolving the challenges that it inherited when we came into office in 2017," Mrs Osei-Opare said.
"There's a lot that has been done, that you can share with the public. Despite this severe impact of COVID-19 on the economy, the administration has already commenced work on several initiatives aimed at improving the quality of life of Ghanaians.
"We should collectively do a better job in making the public aware of these developments to give hope to the people. I, therefore, encourage you to give more information dissemination on government's achievements and particularly the achievements of SOEs".
Support
Mrs Osei-Opare reiterated that the government remains committed to funding the acquisition of new vans which would enhance the work of ISD officers at the regional level.
She said President Akufo-Addo had assured at the last cabinet retreat that funding will be released to purchase the vehicles during the second term.
Commendation
Mrs Osei-Opare said the administration has been satisfied with the output of the Ministry of Information under the leadership of Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah.
She also commended Mr Oppong Nkrumah for adopting innovative approaches to the dissemination of information about government activities.
"We have had significant improvement in the work of this Ministry. To achieve this, your Ministry has been adopting various innovative approaches such as the twice-weekly Minister's Press Briefings, the Nation Building Updates events, social media promotion of government policies, projects and positions, the mass media and public education campaigns and the development of communications campaigns".
She said PROs of the ISD had played a critical role in helping the Ministry achieve all its successes, urging them to work harder because communication of government policies and programmes was much more difficult in the second term of any government.
Increase in the number of PROs
In introductory remarks, Mr Oppong Nkrumah said under his leadership the number of PROs at the ISD had increased to 70 from 40 in 2018 when he took office as the Minister of Information.
He said the Ministry had embarked on a drive to improve professionalism within the Service by registering the PROs with the Institute of Public Relations and paying their subscriptions as well as ensuring that they were continuously trained.
Mr Oppong Nkrumah said the Ministry had also developed a partnership with the SIGA to ensure that SOEs become a part of the government's communication efforts.
"We at Information Ministry believes that there needs to be a paradigm shift in managing government's communications. The people of our country who pay taxes want to know what the central government, what the local government and what State-Owned Enterprises are doing in their name," he said.
"In the absence of this information, they will rightly conclude that central government, local government and State-Owned Enterprises are not working. The job of the media is not necessarily to promote what the government is doing, It is rather our job as Heads of Communications across the various government offices to forcefully dominate the communication space with information about what the government is doing for and on behalf of the people of Ghana".
He said the dissemination of such information must be a constant activity and not only in times of crisis.
According to him, the Ministry was investing in improving the work of PROs because only highly-trained and highly-resourced officers can disseminate information about government projects effectively.
He also appealed to the Heads of MDAs to collaborate with PROs to enable them to achieve their tasks.
