The Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development public relations officer Jim Mugunga believes the government image is struggling because of poor communication.
Mugunga says, "Most government communicators communicate to themselves and often their bosses do what the feel like.” This attitude then often leads to poor communication when government has an urgent matter to address to the public. Mugunga says this is the time when various government heads rush to the media and issue contradicting statements because they have been vetted by their in-house PR staff.
Mugunga believes the government needs to develop a communication strategy that can guide all government agencies.
The lack of such a common communication guideline has often driven even some government spokespersons to end up siding with critics of government on public policy issues. Mugunga says such a guideline would help shape the utterances of many officials who go off cuff and make unintended statements with grave consequences.
