Public relation s, in it s modern se nse, is bel ieved to have been started in Ethiop ia inrn1960 's. Unfortunate ly, a ll the reg im es th at assumed power durin g those time srnimpl emented public relations fully depriving its profess ion a l nature and und e rminin grnits roles. Government public relations were made to serve seem in g ly trivial tasks, suchrnas looking after traveling process of their bos ses and organiz in g meetings. In very rarerncircumstances, where efforts were made to exercise practices that mi g htrnapproximately to the re a l practice of public relation s, the driving force behind wasrnprimarily serving the interest of the ruling class. Though so me efforts are being madernrec ently so as to reform the PR practice in the co untry, the earl ier trend ofrnpracticing public relations is more or less, is sti ll in existence.rnIn the contemporary world, the task of the governmenl to inform the public is not arnmatter of choice; r ath er, it is somethin g related to the concept of good governance andrna must be delivered task. Especiall y in d evel oping countries like Ethiopia the task ofrnthe government to inform the public is highly attached to peace, development andrndemocratization. From this perceptive, examining the practice of government publicrnrelations would be a study worth taking. Though public relations, a system wherebyrnthe government informs its public, has an important role to play , it is evident thatrnpublic relations in the federal government offices doe s not see m to li ve up tornexpectation. Different stakeholders including public relations practiti oners, se riou slyrncomplain about the problems in the practice of public relations in the governmentrnoffices.rnAddressing th e problem requires co ndu cting a syste mati c stud y in the a rea, and to daternthere is paucity of academ ic re sea rch conducted in thi s context.This study therefore, aims at filling the gap. To this end, it focuses on exam ining thernpractices and challenges of public relations in the Federal Government Offices. Arntwo-way symmetry of public relations theoretical framework was used to inform thernstudy. What is more both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed in thernstudy. Under the qualitative method, data gathering tools such as document analysisrnand in-depth interview were used, whereas under the quantitative method a surveyrnquestionnaire was administered to respondents selected purposely. About 92 orrnaround 77% of the respondents returned the questionnaire. In-depth interview with 12rnpurposely selected public relations practitioners and government communicationrnaffairs office leaders was also conducted.rnThe analysis of the data clearly demonstrates that though some achievements havernbeen made through a recently initiated effort to transform government public relations,rnwhat has largely emerged is a change in form rather than in content. The practice isrnstill shacked with some serious problems such as limiting the practice to trivialrnactivities like organizing meetings, looking after traveling process of officials andrnwriting minutes that impede public relations to move forward and contribute to mutualrnintelligibility between the government and the public.rnBased on the findings, a few relevant recommendations that would contribute tornimproving the practice of PR in the government offices were made.