There is a con­cert­ed ef­fort by the Min­istry of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions (MOC) to en­sure cit­i­zens are aware of Gov­ern­ment’s ex­pen­di­ture and pro­grammes and how this is used to de­liv­er ser­vices to com­mu­ni­ties through­out T&T.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Min­is­ter Don­na Cox gave the un­der­tak­ing as she met with com­mu­ni­ca­tions prac­ti­tion­ers from all across the Gov­ern­ment.

A state­ment from the MOC said Cox want­ed to hear from them and ap­prise them of new ini­tia­tives. She told the group they can look for­ward to the dif­fer­ence in a one-minute pro­gramme that will be avail­able on all me­dia plat­forms and will act as the of­fi­cial voice of the Gov­ern­ment.

“Tax­pay­ers want to know what the Gov­ern­ment is do­ing in each of these min­istries. We owe them a du­ty of care and we should be ready to pro­vide them with the rel­e­vant in­for­ma­tion,” said Cox.

An e-newslet­ter is among the new ini­tia­tives to be rolled out by the MOC.

The min­istry, she said, is em­bark­ing on a ‘Did You Know’ cam­paign aimed at pro­vid­ing an­swers and in­for­ma­tion to fre­quent­ly asked ques­tions about Gov­ern­ment ser­vices.

The min­is­ter said this was im­por­tant be­cause there are too many un­der-utilised Gov­ern­ment ini­tia­tives which cit­i­zens are un­aware of.

“It is our role as com­mu­ni­ca­tors to ex­plain pol­i­cy and help de­liv­er ser­vices. I be­lieve that ef­fec­tive Gov­ern­ment com­mu­ni­ca­tions can bring about pos­i­tive changes to our cit­i­zens and help our de­mo­c­ra­t­ic in­sti­tu­tions. This is need­ed now more than ever in to­day’s dig­i­tal age where news, some­times fake news, has the abil­i­ty to change the course of a na­tion,” she said.

Hu­man and phys­i­cal re­sources, train­ing, the qual­i­ty of in­for­ma­tion and the time­li­ness of dis­sem­i­na­tion were some of the oth­er is­sues dis­cussed at the meet­ing.

Cox al­so en­cour­aged greater col­lab­o­ra­tion across min­istries and gave the un­der­tak­ing to meet with the com­mu­ni­ca­tions pro­fes­sion­als once a month to keep them abreast of Gov­ern­ment’s plans and to help them work through and find so­lu­tions to is­sues with re­gards to the com­mu­ni­ca­tions process.

The meet­ing was held at Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter in St Clair.