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Mr Eric Opoku, the Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister, has said the Information Services Department (ISD) had not been effective in carrying out its core mandate. He said ISD, mouthpiece of the government, played crucial role in the governance system in every country through the dissemination of information on government policies and programmes to general public. �However, since late President Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah�s era the Department has not lived up to expectation. Not much is seen of the ISD which is supposed to be the public relations outfit of the government,� he said. �There are a lot of good things the government is doing in the country but Ghanaians are not being well informed to appreciate them. Information officers have kept mute and people are misinterpreting government policies and programmes and in effect misleading Ghanaians.� Mr Opoku said this when Mr Akwasi Amankwaa, the Brong-Ahafo Regional Director of the ISD, called on him in Sunyani. The visit was to introduce the staff and brief him on their achievements over the years and challenges facing the Department in the Region. He said it was said that some Information Officers who, instead of explaining and defending government policies and programmes, rather say negative things about the government. �Some of the officers have adopted partisan approach in discharging their duties. If you do this how do you expect your Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to support you in your work?�. On the issue of some Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives recruiting their own Public Relations Officers (PROs) instead of Information Officers, Mr Opoku said that could be due to lack of trust between them and Information Officers. �If you are an Information Officer and your Municipal or District Chief Executive cannot trust you, then it will be difficult for him or her to confide in you as a Public Relations Officer,� he added. Mr Opoku, also the Member of Parliament for Asunafo South, said notwithstanding the sentiments he expressed he would help the Department but appealed to the Director to ensure the staff improved on their performance no matter their political inclination. Mr Amankwaa enumerated challenges facing the Department saying about 70% of the cinema vans in the Region were not working and the van for the Regional Office had been parked at the Sunyani magazine for more than a year, while the Sunyani Municipal Assembly�s van is at the mercy of the weather at the assembly�s premises. He expressed concern about the two cinema vans because they served the Regional capital and the RCC adding �The Department has always found itself wanting anytime there is an official function like the visit of President John Mahama to the Region�. Mr Amankwaa said some MMDCEs in the Region hired public relation officers with the assemblies� small resources when that role could be played effectively and efficiently by the information officers to save the assemblies some money. However, he noted that the behaviour of some of the Information Officers were not ideal and promised to work on it.