Does the GPS discriminate against specialist Multicultural agencies?
The newly set up GPS (Government Procurement Service), set up after the closure of the COI by the government, finally came up with their long awaited roster agencies and it comes as no surprise that despite the fact that the ethnic population is the fastest growing and stands at 20% the government procurement body totally ignored specialist multicultural agencies with a strong track record of executing successful campaigns for government departments.
The government has sent a clear signal that they are not interested in multicultural communities and only makes a lip service and another tick box exercise, the government in this case may have discriminated against SME ethnic advertising and communications agencies in favour of mainstream agencies that lacks knowledge and understanding of the diverse communities in the UK.
The previous government body the COI had a structure in place and a dedicated specialist unit to deal with multicultural marketing and established a roster of specialist agencies to deal with diversity, as mainstream agencies clearly do not have the capabilities and skills to engage and communicate with such diverse audiences.
So what has gone wrong with the GPS and why are we treated with such contempt? Is the government serious about targeting hard to reach groups or will we end up with tokenism once again?
Questions that the GPS has failed to address or respond to and put us back in square one again.
Saad Saraf
Director
www.thinkethnic.com
