Social media to work for govt
The government's communication plan includes unlimited access to information by members of the public, according to information minister Tjekero Tweya. He made these remarks in parliament last week when discussions centred around the government's policy over the use of social media.
The minister said that according to the Harambee Prosperity Plan, there is a focus on accountability and transparency to promote better service delivery to members of the public. Therefore, he said, the duties and functions of public relations as well as those of spokespersons and media liaisons should be adapted and adjusted in line with this vision.
He is of the view that unlimited access to public information will help the government and its agencies to manage information sharing with the public.
Government's communication plan includes making the duties of officials who work with information and the public clear so that a generic point of view can develop as to how they must do their jobs, Tweya said.
“In this regard, all ministries, offices and agencies of the government, as well as local authorities, must ensure that public information is disseminated to the public within a reasonable time. It is expected of them to be proactive when communicating information about our programmes, policies and projects.”
As a result, these officials will have to make use of available technologies and communication instruments to effectively share information with the public and further to that, to also ensure that factors which may have a negative impact on government's image are identified and corrected as soon as possible.
Guidelines have been established for the implementation of the plan and these include action steps, key performance indicators as well as a timeline.
In this regard, the information ministry has a policy on the use of social media by government officials as well as plan to implement it.
“As government it is expected of us to use all available channels to ensure that our citizens have access to information, and useful information, so as to make decisions about their quality of life. Therefore, social media is one of the tools that government will use to disseminate information and through this, improve service delivery to our people,” Tweya said.
However he added that these tools would not replace traditional media channels but would rather complement them and he called on the National Assembly members to support the new communication policy.
Estelle de Bruyn
The minister said that according to the Harambee Prosperity Plan, there is a focus on accountability and transparency to promote better service delivery to members of the public. Therefore, he said, the duties and functions of public relations as well as those of spokespersons and media liaisons should be adapted and adjusted in line with this vision.
He is of the view that unlimited access to public information will help the government and its agencies to manage information sharing with the public.
Government's communication plan includes making the duties of officials who work with information and the public clear so that a generic point of view can develop as to how they must do their jobs, Tweya said.
“In this regard, all ministries, offices and agencies of the government, as well as local authorities, must ensure that public information is disseminated to the public within a reasonable time. It is expected of them to be proactive when communicating information about our programmes, policies and projects.”
As a result, these officials will have to make use of available technologies and communication instruments to effectively share information with the public and further to that, to also ensure that factors which may have a negative impact on government's image are identified and corrected as soon as possible.
Guidelines have been established for the implementation of the plan and these include action steps, key performance indicators as well as a timeline.
In this regard, the information ministry has a policy on the use of social media by government officials as well as plan to implement it.
“As government it is expected of us to use all available channels to ensure that our citizens have access to information, and useful information, so as to make decisions about their quality of life. Therefore, social media is one of the tools that government will use to disseminate information and through this, improve service delivery to our people,” Tweya said.
However he added that these tools would not replace traditional media channels but would rather complement them and he called on the National Assembly members to support the new communication policy.
Estelle de Bruyn
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