Government has accepted the offer by Kaieteur News to publish its advertisement free of cost but said the newspaper will have to take the ads and notices off its website, www.eprocure.gov.gy.
Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon yesterday said that the government noted the offer made by the newspaper and has accepted same. According to Dr Luncheon, the stated intentions of the e-procure website are being realized. “Notwithstanding the obvious and stated rationale for its creation and use, some have proffered other motives and have ascribed them to the government,” he said during his post-Cabinet press briefing at Office of the President. “In that regard, the administration has noted efforts being made by Kaieteur News, among others, regarding countering those putative ulterior motives. Their responses, particularly their offer to continue the publication of governments adds in their newspaper, that offer has been accepted by the administration. As such, their readers can now expect to be provided with printed version of the ads and notices being carried on the e-procure government website,” he explained.
In a page one comment in its edition last Sunday, Kaieteur News said it was willing to publish the advertisements whenever space was available, free of cost. Later, the newspaper indicated that the administration had accepted the offer but noted that ads were still not being sent to it.
At a recent press conference, Dr Luncheon had explained that the government is moving away from the traditional and more expensive means of advertising in the print media and is taking advantage of the transformation in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector. The website was established after legislation was passed in the National Assembly, to permit the publication of government procurement opportunities on a freely accessible website. A release from the Office of the President, on August 9, said that the website would enhance accountability and transparency by displaying all current ads and notices according to sectors and categories while maintaining an inventory of past placements.
Since its establishment, the website has been regularly updated.
Opposition Leader Robert Corbin has described the move by the government as “lopsided thinking” and said the “whole issue is premature.” And the main opposition party’s Chief Whip Lance Carberry suggested that the move was intended to starve independent newspapers of advertising. “Let’s call a spade a spade,” he said. “The fact is that the PPP’s attitude to the media that they do not consider to be pliant to their cause has been to squeeze them economically.”
Since August 9, there has been no booking of ads by the Government Information Agency in Stabroek News or other private newspapers though some have been placed in the Guyana Chronicle.
Stabroek News Editor-in-Chief Anand Persaud has, however, said that government has not provided a reasonable rationale for suddenly pulling ads from the print media. He said the government could have been placing ads for many years on the web and he questioned why this had not been done as an accompaniment to the print and broadcast ads. He suggested that the real reason for the move may have been hinted at in Dr Luncheon’s statement about the expense incurred in print advertising, as it seems that the government is conserving on expenditure in some areas in light of next year’s scheduled general elections.
Persaud added that the government also had to convince the public that the website and the poorly patronized Guyana Chronicle would provide sufficient publicity and notice of procurement advertisements and other government business. The government has for the third time in less than four years changed its policy on state advertisements in the print media and this, Persaud said, was a classic sign of policy jumble or worse, the rewarding or punishing of media entities.