The Right to Access Information Commission (RAIC) southern region trained government ministries, departments and agencies, civil society organizations and the media on digital access to information to facilitate online or digital information request and processing. The training took place on Friday 16th May, 2025, in Bo, southern Sierra Leone.
In his opening statement, Dr. Ibrahim Seaga Shaw, Chairman and Information Commissioner of RAIC, intimated participants of the mandate of the RAIC which is to promote access to information held by public authorities. He said that all public authorities should provide access to the information they hold, and reiterated that they are just holders but members of the public are custodians of the information. He continued that article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Right provides that every persons have the right to seek, receive and impact information without borders and that is one of the legal foundations of the RAI Act 2013.
He said, in addition to making request for information by using paper or verbally, there is now an additional option of going on the commission’s website and complete the request forms, that is Form A (Request for information form), Form B (Acknowledgement Form), which the public authorities complete after request, Form C (Response Form) and Form D (Complaint Form). He told them that making information request is not just for ordinary people but public authorities can also request for information.
He added that the participants must serve as ambassadors to take the message to their various institutions and to the public as they were representatives of their institutions as well as to other MDAs that were not present.
He added that Section 41 of the RAI Act makes it very clear that the Commission should provide an annual report every year and in addition to the operations of the commission, status of compliance from public authorities should also be included in the report but that cannot be done without their collaboration. He went through the Proactive Disclosure of Information (PDI) and Annual Compliance Report (ACR) templates with participants and admonished them to complete and submit them to the regional office.
“All ministries, departments and agencies are now going to be evaluated on access to information, failure to comply, not only RAIC will come after you but you will also be answerable to parliament,” he said. He discussed the evaluation sheet with the participants.
Mr Alusine Bangura, Information, Education and Communications Officer of Bo District Council raised a concern of RAIC implementing a regional archives for records management for MDAs. He continued by bringing up the case of the ECSL and a certain political party that RAIC didn’t handle the case to ensure compliance of request.
Mr. Mohamed Alieu Koroma, the Information, Education and Communications Officer of Bo City Council said the delay in completing the PDI and ACR was as a result of transfers made in most government offices.
Mr. Charles K. Lamin of the Ministry of Local Government applauded the effort of the Commission in implementing digital access to information and the good work of the regional office.
The training was climaxed by a question and answer session.
For more media enquiries, contact:
Millicent Brima
Public Information and Communications Officer
RAIC – Southern Region Office
+232 76 676 855
