By Simon Turibamwe
Headed by Frank Tumwebaze, the Ministry of Information and ICT is (effective 1st July) going to be Shs13bn richer following a presidential directive calling on all government MDAs to surrender much of their powers and autonomy when it comes to making decisions regarding advertising. The idea is to centralize decision making when it comes to spending government money on the purchase of media space. The decision has already created uneasiness amongst different government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) whose PR bosses and Communications Managers will have their decision making powers diminished because the advert-placement decisions will now have to be made centrally by Tumwebaze’s Ministry and government believes this will enhance value for money. How it will work is that an MDA with a message to put across will communicate their need to the Tumwebaze Ministry whose officials will then have the last word on which media platform to use for the message to be delivered to the public. As a result of this new arrangement, as part of the budgeting process for the FY2019/20, each MDA have already had their communications budget significantly cut as the PSST Keith Muhakanizi and his team struggle to raise the Shs13bn that is required for the ICT Ministry to pioneer this new approach to government publicity. The new arrangement will in effect reduce the power and clout Communications Managers have been wielding for some good time. They are each going to be left with very little money to run their departments in the respective MDAs and there are fears that many of them are going to have less output. Under the old arrangement, every MDA would have their PR budget and would spend it autonomously without Media Center or even the Information Ministry exercising any oversight or control on what they do. For comments, call or text us on 0752510225.
