Publishers can add announcements without them going to pending.
testing from the front when logged in as a publisher
An Announcement can be submitted from the home page.
you can submit an announcement from the home page only if you are logged in and then it goes to the pending folder
If you have to go into the dashboard to publish the pending announcement submitted from the front, why not just go ahead and create the announcement in the dashboard and publish it in one step.
archived
a member can submit an announcement for approval.