Government ad decisions were ‘muddled and unaccountable’

Government advertising under the Howard government was chaotic and unaccountable, according to a report from the government watchdog.  

The results of an investigation by the Australian National Audit Office was released last week, but went virtually unnoticed until being picked by the Sydney Morning Herald today. The report from the Auditor General looked at a sample of campaigns, but found little evidence of proper ministerial oversight. Instead, it said that decisions on strategy, execution and choice of agency were often taken by the Ministerial Committee on Government Communications, although its members now disagree on what level of authority the body actually had.

In virtually all cases, work began long before any contract had been drawn up. A picture is drawn within the report of agencies being able to simply present a bill.

The report says: “The overall decision making framework for advertising campaigns, which was largely settled in the 1980s, was not well aligned with the requirements of the current financial framework. In particular it has become apparent that the responsibility for key decisions relating to advertising campaigns was fragmented between the MCGC and departments, creating uncertainty in clearly identifying the responsibilities and the limits of authority of participants in the decision making processes.”