Confusion and Obfuscation

Mar 13, 2017 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

If the Ministry of Foreign Affairs began announcing new tax measures or if the Ministry of Health suddenly decided that it would assume responsibility for the rice and sugar industries, there would be confusion and chaos within the system of public administration
It is important in the system of public administration that portfolios be clearly delineated. It is even more important that these be respected. It is important that one Ministry or Department does not intrude into the work of another.
It is important that lines of authority are clear and there is no overlapping of responsibilities. If someone of some agency is assigned a portfolio, then that agency should be exclusively responsible for that portfolio. Otherwise, we will have confusion.
The government’s public relations is being subject to criticism of being ineffective. The good work that is being done is being drowned out by a plethora of criticisms and controversies. Hardly a day goes by without a new scandal not enveloping the administration.
This is the nature of political fray all over the world – the bad new sells; the good news finds second place.
The world of public relations personnel is to make the government look good by burnishing the image of the government and selling its programmes and policies. But this is not happening because there is over lapping of responsibilities within the information portfolio.
The information portfolio has been handed to the Prime Minister. A Department of Information has been established. Yet there exists parallel institutions which are performing the very functions which are supposed to be the remit of the Department of Information.
So instead of one central agency which can deal with the information portfolio, there is more than one which are responsible for disseminating information. There is a presidential outfit which covers the President and which is heavily staffed. There is the Department of Information which is understaffed.
There is the Cabinet Press Briefing, a leftover from the Roger Luncheon days and there are Ministers who have their own PR staff. This not just complicates those involved with disseminating information such as NCN, the Guyana Chronicle and GINA but it even confuses the private media since there is no central figure or authority to whom they can turn when they need information.
In many countries, including the United States of America, there is such an identified person, usually titled as a press secretary.
This was the person to whom the private media could turn when they needed confirmation or reaction to a story and when the subject minister for that story was either not available or evasive.
Every government needs a clear channel and an identified funnel for the transmission of information to the wider public, including to the private media. This does not exist in Guyana.
Last Saturday, NCN aired a programme called Government in Action. The programme itself did not justify its name. It was more talk than action. It was poorly scripted and arranged. The graphics were deplorable and the content itself left much to be desired.
The subject was the Red House controversy, a matter that is now sub judice. The arguments made in the feature have all already been countered. They are old and stale. But most discomforting were the credits at the conclusion which showed that the feature was produced by the Ministry of the Presidency and not by the Department of Information.
The Department of Information should have total responsibility for such official features lest, the left arm of the government be seen as contradicting the right arm. You cannot have two agencies of government doing the same job with two different sets of bosses. This is simply lead to confusion.
The Department of Information has the expertise to undertake the sort of work that is being duplicated by other agencies of the State. The Department of Information had done a fantastic job during the Budget debates. It produced graphics which concisely highlighted the Budget measures. These helped to sell a difficult Budget to the people.
However, so long as there exists multiple agencies dawdling in the same work, confusion will persist, the government’s PR will be ineffective and the government image will continue to be clouded in the eyes of the public.

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Confusion and Obfuscation

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