Ministries bypassing Government Advertising Agency forwarded to Auditor General

Nairobi, Kenya: The Government has forwarded the names of ministries, departments, parastatals and Semi-Autonomous and Autonomous Government Agencies (SAGAS) that do not handle their advertising related issues through the authorised channels to the Auditor General.

This follows the decision by some ministries and government agencies to handle their advertising needs directly, without going through the Government Advertising Agency (GAA), a move that could see them sanctioned or reprimanded, even after being reported to the Auditor General.

“We have forwarded the names of those agencies not abiding by the rules to the Auditor General. So far, the agency has spent Ksh1 billion on advertising,” said Mr Dennis Chebitwey, the Director of Public Communications, Ministry of ICT.

GAA is the sole advertising agency for Government, which was born out of the need to centralise advertising and save the Government unnecessary costs. This followed National Treasury’s circular Number 17/2013 dated December 17th, 2013 that was approved by Cabinet on April 22, 2015.

The circular recommended that Government advertising be done through GAA, in addition to promoting electronic means via the web as an austerity measure to cut on government expenditure.

The centralisation of Government advertising came about after the Cabinet authorised that all State advertising,  including State Corporations an agencies, Independent Commissions, Universities and SAGAS be processed through GAA under the Ministry of ICT.

The agency processes all advertising bookings by budgeting and costing advert placement across the different departments and ministries – a move meant to promote uniformity. It has also standardised rates and enabled better negotiation power – generating savings as well as eliminating duplication.