"Today I want to officially announce that all public Authorities as mandated by the RAI Act 2013, are hereby notified that proactive publication schemes should be submitted to the RAIC on or before 1st March 2019 for approval. Failure to do so will incur an invite to the RAIC's tribunal and resulting penalties."
This is according to the deputy Minister of Information and Communications Lawyer Solomon Jamiru, who made the statement whilst delivering a keynote address on behalf of the Vice President Dr Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, at the launching of the Proactive Disclosure Forum organised by the Right to Access Information Commission at Miatta Conference centre, Freetown, on Thursday 6th December 2018.
Hon. Jamiru described proactive disclosure of information as the releasing of information before it is requested which can only be actualised by Public Authorities voluntarily releasing information to the public, as against reactive disclosure which only happens after the request has been made. This, the deputy Minister, said is in line with President Bio's drive in the fight against corruption.
He highlighted that Ten (10) MDAs, including the Sierra Leone Police, Environment Protection Agency EPA, National Revenue Authority(NRA), National Public Procurement Authority (NPPA), Statistics Sierra Leone have been selected to be part of the pilot phase of the Proactive Disclosure project funded by the World Bank.
In his statement at the conference, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Corporation, Dr. Alie Kabba said the RAI Act will help strengthen the Democratic pillars of Sierra Leone, which is in fulfilment of the campaign promise under the New Direction to uphold the tenets of Democracy. In his contribution, Internal Affairs Minister, Mr Edward Soluku pledged the commitment of his ministry to collaborate with RAIC and affirmed that he will encourage all the departments and agencies under his ministry, including the police, Immigration, National Civil Registration Commission, Fire Force, and Correctional department to fully cooperate with the proactive information publication scheme.
The chairman and Information Commissioner of RAIC, Dr. Ibrahim Seaga Shaw said the RAIC is the only institution in Sierra Leone with the legal mandate to lead the process of promoting access to information and open data through proactive disclosure of information by public authorities which will serve as a corruption prevention strategy. Dr. Shaw reiterated the importance of proactive disclosure in promoting transparency, accountability and good governance which he said form part of the key aspirations of the New Direction government of President Julius Maada Bio, He stressed the detailed classes of information listed in Section 8 of the RAI Act 2013, which form the core proactive publication obligations for every public authority.
Dr Shaw assured participants that the setting up of RAIC is consistent with Article 9 of the African Human Rights Charter and Article 19 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, both of which provide for the right to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas. He stressed that these two Articles, to which Sierra Leone is a signatory, provide the international legal foundation for the Right to Access Information Act, 2013, and by extension the work of RAIC itself... He, however, warned that these articles also provide for internationally accepted exemptions such as the protection of individual privacy, national security, defence, customs and traditions etc, which he also said are captured in the RAI Act 2013 as exemptions, “It is also in the public interest for some of these exemptions such as national interest to be upheld; it is in the public interest for instance for access to be denied to any type of information that would jeopardise our national security and make our country vulnerable to attack from a foreign aggressors”, Dr Shaw added.
The RAIC Chairman/Information Commissioner pledged a robust move by the commission to ensure total compliance by MDAs and assured all of the independence of the Commission urging them to see the RAIC as a partner in development. He said while he is committed to uphold the independence of the commission it is important to note that it is a statutory body located in the Ministry of Information and Communication which means that it would have to collaborate with this ministry and other MDAs and Non-State Actors from time to time. He, however, cautioned that this collaboration should not be taken to mean loss of independence of the commission.
Executive Director of Society for Democratic Initiative Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai on behalf of Civil Society Organizations called on the government to provide more resources to the RAIC that has been under resourced over the years adding that the RAI law is the 5th strongest law in the world according to a survey that was done two years ago. He called on the Minister of Information and Communications to table the RAI regulation that was recently validated in Parliament.
Statements of commitment to the Proactive Disclosure of Information were also made by the Executive Director of the National Public Procurement Authority (NPPA) Mr Ibrahim Swarray and the Deputy Minister of Labour, Mr Lansana Dumbuya
RAIC Western Area Commissioner, Ms Yeama Thompson whilst moderating a technical session in the afternoon on Proactive Disclosure scheme: Obligations for Public Authorities, made reference to sections 27 of the RAI Act which is of Paramount importance, which states that every Public Authority shall record and maintain records of its activities in a manner that facilitates the right to information. She concluded that it may seem as a huge workload for the Public Authorities but on the contrary, a public Authority with a very good proactive scheme that provides all the information as stipulated in section 8 and 11 would receive very little request for information and would simply refer the requester to its scheme.
The Proactive Disclosure launch is part of the Popularization of the RAI ACT project with funds provided by the World Bank through Public Finance Management Improvement and Consolidation Project PFMICP, in the Ministry of Finance.
The Vote of thanks was delivered by Yeama Thompson while the conference was called to order by the newly appointed Executive Secretary of RAIC, Mr Mustapha Braima, former member of parliament for constituency 002 in Kailahun and former Controller of News and Current Affairs at the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service. The newly appointed RAIC commissioners for the Southern and Eastern Regions, Mr Beah Yormah Idriss(who coordinated the participation of the regional Civil Society Organisations in the conference), and Mrs Mary Karimu, respectively, were also in attendance.
