“WE CANNOT DO THINGS THE SAME WAY AND EXPECT DIFFERENT RESULTS” –MAMADI GOBEH KAMARA, DEPUTY MINISTER OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS.
The Deputy Minister of Information and Communications (MIC) has admonished staff of the Right to Access Information Communication (RAIC) that they would not see new results if things are done the same old way.
Madam Mamadi Gobeh–Kamara was responding to concerns raised by the Right to Access Information Commission RAIC during a familiarization visit on Tuesday June 25 to the commission’s headquarters on 46 Kroo Town Road in Freetown, as part of her tour to agencies under the supervision of the Ministry of Information and Communications.
the Executive Secretary of the RAIC, Honorable Mustapha Braima, who introduced the RAIC staff to the deputy minister and her delegation, said the commission is happy to receive such a high profile personality who has been a colleague in the media and hope the relationship between the RAIC and the MIC would bear more positive fruits with her new role. Hon. Braima highlighted the gains made so far since the reconstitution of RAIC in November last year, among which included the relocation of the commission from IMATT to Kroo Town Road in the Central Business District for a lesser cost, engagement with Public Authorities on the proactive disclosure of information and setting of two deadlines of 1st March and 30th May for the submission of the proactive disclosure publication schemes among others.
Chairman and Information Commissioner RAIC, Dr. Ibrahim Seaga Shaw congratulated Madam Mamadi Gobeh-Kamara on her appointment as deputy minister of Information and Communications and thanked her for taking her time to visit the commission to assess things first hand. Dr. Shaw recounted challenges the commission inherited among which were a commission that has never been audited and without a website, and above all very limited public awareness of the work of the RAIC and a few Freedom of Information requests from the public. But said he is now happy to inform the deputy Information Minister that the construction of the RAIC website has been completed and will be launched in the next few days, an internal audit of the commission’s finances and internal controls since the setting up the commission in 2014 has recently been completed awaiting the release of the report; a management review of the commission by the Public Sector Reform Unit and the report already released; and finally there have been many Freedom of Information (FOI) requests from across the country with less than a year since he took over.
The chairman , on behalf his regional commission, appealed to the deputy minister for consideration in the areas of getting the full complement of staff, as RAIC is extremely understaffed, lack of official vehicles (except one old one). The Chairman said to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency in the execution of its mandate , these are among pressing issues to be addressed,; sentiments on these issues were equally shared by all the four regional commissioner who were also in attendance.
Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Mamadi Gobeh Kamara told the RAIC that their challenges are not peculiar to other agencies under the MIC, and should make efforts to surmount them by doing things differently from what used to obtain in the past. She asked the RAIC to prepare a top priority list that should be presented to her for onward action adding from her experience in the projects work, results are key, and therefore the commission should strategize ways of navigating through its challenges.
The deputy minister, who was accompanied by the deputy Permanent Secretary of MIC Abass Salieu Jalloh, was taken on a conducted tour of the RAIC facilities.
BY THE RAIC MEDIA TEAM
