Who Is In-Charge�Of Government Communications Machinery?

�Long before the appointment of the Minister of Information, Mrs. Zita Okaikwei, there were problems with the government�s Communications machinery and therefore it will be unfair for the Minister to be penciled out as if she was responsible for the inefficiencies in the Communications system�, this was the comment of a prominent National Democratic Congress (NDC) member in response to speculations in a section of the media that the Minister of Information would be affected by the President�s reshuffle next January. The prominent NDC member who wants to remain anonymous said the problems associated with the government Communications machinery arose as a result of the rush by the office of the President to appoint the President�s Spokesman and the Communications Director before the Minister of Information. He said it should have been the other way round with the appointment of the Information Minister, who would then announce the appointment of the Communications Director and the Presidential Spokesman. This is because, he said, whether the people at the office of the President like it or not, the Minister of Information is responsible for the two portfolio because they are supposed to come directly under the Information Ministry and should take instructions from the Minister who is answerable to the President in case of any lapses. Currently, the NDC leading member said, between the Communications Director and the Presidential spokesman, none of them want to accept that he is working under the other and the other and the hostility between them as to who is who in the government�s Communications machinery, is having negative effect on the work of the Ministry of Information which is also affecting the government�s information management. Even though it was still too early to assess the performance of the NDC administration, its information management cannot be described as being on top of issues and for government policies and programmes to get to the people, government must come out as soon as possible to sort out who-is-who in the Communications structure, the leading member emphasized. He said the current system where no one is sure who is in-charge of the Communications machinery, with some appointees seeking to work independent of the Minister of Information, would not help the government�s information management. Already, there have been some few mistakes in the information management system because some people don�t want to be seen to be taking instructions from the Information Minister. Could anyone believe that the Ministry of Information, the custodian of government pictures, a duty the Ministry has performed for years since independence, this time, for the first time in history, had no pictures of the President�s trip to Trinidad and Tobago for the Commonwealth meeting of Heads of state, source at the Ministry told �The Ghana Palaver�. The Ministry had to source the pictures of the President�s trip from the internet. Why? Ever since the regime of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana, no President travels without a cameraman from the Ministry of Information going on the trip but this time, even internal travels of the President are sometimes missed by the Ministry of Information the source said, adding that �there have been occasion when the Minister, Mrs. Okaikwei, had to insist the cameraman goes along before the Ministry�s cameraman was put on board. There have even been instances where travel arrangements have been done at the Castle for Deputy Ministers of Information without the Minister�s knowledge, the source said asking, how can any Minister work under such circumstance. Apart from the �Meet The Press� exercise which Ministers of state meet the media to answer questions on their performance, some Ministers have at this early stage of the administration refused to speak to issues on Radio and Television programmes as planned by the Ministry for them. Some of the Ministers have also refused to furnish the Information Ministry with their activities so that the Ministry can effectively speak on issues relating to the Ministries as the manager of the government�s information, the source said.