Announced by a government departmental head (6)
I believe the answer is:
stated
'announced' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'by a government departmental head' is the wordplay.
'by' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'a government' becomes 'state' (state is a kind of government).
'head' says to take the initial letters.
The first letter of 'departmental' is 'd'.
'state' next to 'd' is 'STATED'.
(Other definitions for stated that I've seen before include "Clearly expressed" , "Expressed, detailed" , "Asserted, affirmed" , "Expressed in speech or writing" , "Declared or asserted" .)