The annual Monitoring and Evaluation of the Department's Public Relations Officers (PROs) is an excellent way of assessing state PROs.
The Deputy Chief Information Officer (DCIO) of the Information Services Department (ISD), and head of the Public Relations Coordinating Division (PRCD), Mrs Ethel Cudjoe Amissah, noted this during the climax of the first phase of the annual Monitoring and Evaluation exercise on Friday, at the ISD head office, Accra.
She explained that the exercise would serve as the fundamental assessment tool for identifying PROs training needs as well as the appropriate skill set for PR postings or reshuffling, recognizing and awarding hardworking PROs, and sanctioning PROs through reassignment or recall.
"For the first phase, we have done what we set out to do, this is the first time we are doing something like this for PROs to come and do a presentation so that we see if they are working or not. At first, we used to go to their posts or organizations, and then speak to their Chief Directors and themselves, however, we realised that most of what their immediate bosses said did not appear on the Bonsu platform, we also examined other people's performances and we were not sure because it appears to be no correlation between what they tell us and what they say," she emphasized.
She disclosed that the second phase of the exercise, which would begin on October 31st and end on November 14th 2022, would include field visits to the MDAs where the PROs had been deployed as well as the administration of an online questionnaire.
She further said ISD expects to hear positive remarks about the PROs because some of them have performed well during the first phase of the presentation.
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"Of course, sometimes the PROs, may be doing very well but then the person may not be appreciated, and so you might meet a boss who may not have all the good things to say about their PROs. Some PROs are not also doing well as we have seen but will lead you to a boss that will say good things.
We should be able to decipher between the two and ensure that we have the right information about the PROs and the right course we expect them to be ready for us when we come to their institutions," she added.
The first phase panel assessment started from October 3rd to October 21st, 2022.
The areas of assessment included their appearance and composure, execution of work/stakeholder engagement plan, presentation skills, and display of good communication skills such as the ability to understand and respond to questions.
